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WRITINGS 



OF 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

KEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 




■J'-f'-t 



JdTvw oCuju^fjzu •^hCouutt^ , 



WRITINGS 



OF 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



EDITED BY 
WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD 



VOL. I , 

1779-1796 



Ncfa gork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

All rights rtserved 



Co^y 



-h 



,8 



Copyright, 1913, 
By CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1913. 



Notbjoot 53teBB 

J. 3. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



NOTE 

John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail (Smith) 
Adams, was born in the North Parish of Braintrec (now 
Quincy), Massachusetts, on July ii, 1767. He died in the 
city of Washington, February 23, 1848. \Iore than fifty 
years of his life were passed in the public service and almost 
one-half of that service was in Europe, as diplomatic repre- 
sentative of the United States in Great Britain, Holland, 
Prussia, and Russia. He resided abroad in the period of the 
French Revolution and of Napoleon, and, as intelligencer 
to the Department of State, he described fully the events 
as they passed before his eyes, seeking the motives of the 
actors and the trend of public policy. At an early age, 
trained and encouraged by his parents, he kept an almost 
daily record of events, and continued it for more than sixty 
years, in itself an extraordinary labor to be performed by 
one who was so active a participant in the social movements 
of his day. He supplemented his official despatches with 
letters, quite as detailed but in a different vein, to family 
and friends. His correspondence, public and private, 
was his own, and at no time of his busy life did he employ 
a secretary, even for formal notes. His state papers, legis- 
lative and executive, were drafted and not infrequently fairly 
copied by his own hand. His spare moments were occupied 
in poetic composition, in translations from the classics, 
from the French, German, and Dutch, and in noting down 
speculations upon subjects immediately before him. He 



vi NOTE 

never had an Idle moment, and the records of his manifold 
activities are full and conclusive. 

The first publication from his pen was his "oration" 
delivered at Commencement, July i8, 1787, on his grad- 
uation from Harvard University. Through the agency 
of Rev. Jeremy Belknap, this appeared in the Columbian 
Magazine (Philadelphia), September, 1787. In June, 1791, 
began to appear In the Columbian Centinel of Boston, his 
letters of "Publicola," in which he replied to Palne's Age 
of Reason. Thereafter and throughout his life he engaged 
in many controversies, wrote much upon public questions, 
and delivered occasional addresses upon many subjects. 
A small part of this controversial matter was printed at the 
time. In newspapers, pamphlets, and volumes. A bibli- 
ography of his published writings, appended to these 
volumes, will afford some measure of their extent, variety, 
and general Interest. 

From this great mass of writings a selection only can be 
made for these volumes, with a purpose to Include what Is 
of permanent historical value, and what is essential to a 
comprehension of the man in all his private and public 
relations. Nothing is suppressed which can contribute to 
this purpose, and the text Is printed as It was written. 
Where the material itself Is so full and varied, elaborate 
annotation would be superfluous. The editor has restricted 
his notes to the identification of Individuals and indication 
of related material. In 1 874-1 877 the Memoirs or Diary 
was published In twelve volumes, by his son, Charles 
Francis Adams, and Is used In those volumes only when 
needed to explain the text. From the correspondence and 
state papers the larger part of this selection will be drawn, 
and so far as the correspondence is concerned, only a small 
part has heretofore appeared In print. 



NOTE vii 

To Charles Francis Adams, Henry Adams, and Brooks 
Adams, grandsons of John Quincy Adams, I owe a debt 
which I can never pay. In his particular line and gen- 
erally, each has been an influence and encouragement to 
high endeavor. 

WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD. 
Boston, November, 191 2. 



/^__ 



CONTENTS 

1779 

PACB 

May — . To Arthur Lee i 

Acknowledging gift of a book. 

1780 

December 21. To John Adams 2 

His journey to Holland. Lectures and lodgings. A 
Brownist parson. Purchase of skates and riding needs. 
Vacation. 

1781 

August 21. To John Adams ...... 4 

The journey to St. Petersburg. The King of Prussia 
and Berlin. Courland and condition of the farmers. 
Narva. 

1783 

July 23. To Abigail Adams ...... 7 

His return from St. Petersburg. Treatment of 
strangers in Sweden. Policy of the king. Denmark 
and its government. Hamburg and its commerce. The 
wine cellars of Bremen. 

September 10. To Abigail Adams 10 

Government of Russia. Landholders and serfs. 
Objections to the system of rule. The Court favorites. 
Condition of the serfs. 

1784 

June 6. To John Adams ^4 

Debate in the House of Commons. Comments on 

the speakers, Pitt, Fox, and North. 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

June i8. To John Adams i5 

Further comments on debates in the Commons. Pitt 
and Fox compared. 

178S 

August 3. To John Adams 17 

Arrives at New York. Courtesies from Richard Henry- 
Lee and John Jay. Anxiety to hear from England. 
Duties on imports into the States. Fear and jealousy 
of Great Britain. The Massachusetts election. Con- 
tinental Board of Treasury. The French charge to 

leave. 

1786 

May 21. To John Adams 21 

Williams' lectures on natural philosophy. Books 
wanted. Course of study. Humphreys' poem. Prom- 
ising students. Winthrop and Sewall. Commencement 
exercises. Syllogistic disputes. Charlestown bridge. 

August 30. To John Adams ...••• 26 
Plans to study law. Character of his college class. 
Intrigue in class honors. Has a mathematical part. 

December 30. To Abigail Adams 28 

Popular outbreaks against courts. Irresolution in 
the executive. Government will probably be altered. 
Is a good republican. 

1787 
June 30. To John Adams ...•••• 29 
Has some relief from employment. A college exhibi- 
tion. Subject of Commencement oration. The State 
election. Paper money. Hancock's bid for popularity. 
The "Defence of the Constitutions." The lieutenant 
governorship. The Cincinnati. 

August 6. To Jeremy Belknap 34 

On publishing his oration delivered at Commencement. 



CONTENTS xi 



PACE 



December 23. To Abigail Adams 36 

At Newburyport with Theophilus Parsons. Opinion 
of the law. Popular odium excited against lawyers. 
His lodgings. Thaxter's downfall. 

1789 

June 28. To John Adams . 40 

Law studies and their application. As to his settle- 
ment. Parsons' expectations. The State election. 
Proposed plan of finance by a lottery. The federal con- 
gress and judiciary. 

November — . Address to President Washington by 

THE Citizens of Newburyport 43 

1790 

March 19. To John Adams 44 

The judicial appointments and his own settlement. 
Conditions in Newburyport, Braintree, and Boston. 
Question of house in Boston. The father's law library. 
Political matters. Cushing's appointment. 

April 5. To John Adams 49 

The federal and the State governments. Cession of 
light-houses. Amendments to the national constitution 
proposed. Cushing's appointment. Complaints against 
the federal government. Assumption of State debts and 
Madison's position. Hamilton's report. 

August 14. To Abigail Adams ...••• 55 
The Columbia's voyage to the Pacific. Qualities of 
a journal. 

September 21. To John Adams 5° 

Lawyers of the city. James Sullivan. William Tudor. 
Thomas Dawes, Jun. Christopher Gore. Amory, 
Wetmore, Otis, and Lowell. 



xii CONTENTS 



PAGE 



October 17. To Abigail Adams 59 

Elections to Congress. A loan in Europe. His first 
address to a jury. 

October 19. To John Adams 61 

Town meeting and selecting a representative. In- 
crease of commerce and industry. Cultivation of hemp. 
Events in France. 

1791 

June-July. Letters of Publicola 65 

Paine and the Revolution in France. 

1792 

February i. To Thomas Boylston Adams . . .110 
On a committee to reform police of Boston. Report 
rejected. History of the measure and his participation. 
Austin's opposition. Simple democracy as a govern- 
ment. Russell assaults Austin. His law practice. In- 
corporation of the town of Quincy. 

February 4. To John Adams US 

A town meeting favors repeal of law prohibiting theat- 
rical exhibitions. A counter-petition. The appoint- 
ment of Dawes to the bench. Opposition of Sullivan 
and Dana. The theatre question. 

December 8. To John Adams 120 

Vote for President and Vice-President. Players routed 
by the Governor. Error of the Attorney-General. 

December 16. To John Adams 123 

The Presidential election. Mob threaten to pull down 
the play-house. His answer to Sullivan. The Governor 
and the electors. Establishment of a French news- 
paper. Attacks upon John Adams. 

December 19. "Menander" 127 

On the theatre incident, a reply to Sullivan. 



CONTENTS 



XllI 



PACF 



December 22. To John Adams 130 

Result of the Presidential election. Continued agita- 
tion on the question of the theatre. Otis and Sullivan. 

1793 

February 10. To John Adams 133 

A commercial crisis in Boston. Desires to be uncon- 
nected with politics. A civic feast. 

April — . "Marcellus" 135 

On Genet's conduct of his mission. 

July 29. From Charles Adams . . . . .146 

His oration on Independence Day. Violence of the 
French faction. Judge Peters' decision. Letters of 
"Pacificus." 

November-December. "Columbus" . . . . 148 

On Genet's diplomatic acts. 

1794 
January 5. To John Adams . . . . . . 176 

Newspaper controversy by " Americanus " and " Barne- 
veld." Letters of " Columbus " approved and criticised. 
Some jealousy displayed. Danger from internal divi- 
sions. Return of Sullivan. 

March 2. To John Adams I79 

Town meeting on Madison's commercial resolutions. 
Fauchet's arrival. Sullivan's attitude. 

March 24. To John Adams iSi 

British seizure of American merchant ships. Popular 
aversion to war. Attempt to have a second civic festi- 
val. Adams probably to be governor. 

April 12. To John Adams • . . • • • 1S3 

Tolerably firm for neutrality. Election of governor. 
His law practice and other activities. 



xiv CONTENTS 

PAGE 

April 22. To John Adams i86 

Sequestration of debts. A direct act of hostility. The 
example of the King of Prussia. 

May 26. To John Adams 189 

Petition on snuff and tobacco. The embargo and 
peace. Local election. 

May 30. Commission to the Netherlands . . . 191 

July 10. To John Adams ....... 192 

A speedy departure desired. Ten days allowed. 

July 27. To John Adams 193 

Delayed by Hamilton's absence. Mission limited to 
a pecuniary negotiation. Effects upon his own position 
and prospects. 

July 29. Instructions ....... 198 

October 23. To John Adams 201 

In danger of losing his despatches. Jay's communi- 
cations on the pending treaty. It is better than war. 
Situation in the Netherlands liable to change. Separate 
negotiations for peace. Fall of Robespierre. Despotic 
rule in Britain. France and Great Britain compared. 

November 2. To the Secretary of State . . . 209 
Peaceful aspect of the Netherlands. Advance of the 
French armies. Mission of Fagel and to Austria. Policy 
of the Patriots. Private property respected. The 
future of his mission. 

November 5. To the Secretary of State . . . 214 
Delivery of his credentials. Reasons for detailing the 
forms. 

November 7. To the Secretary of State . . .218 

Loan discouraged. Makingpeace with France. Posi- 
tion of Great Britain. British feared more than the 
French. Intelligence from the armies. Effect of the 
Western insurrection in the United States. 



CONTENTS XV 



PACK 



November 9. To John Adams 224 

Noevidencesof disturbance in the Netherlands. Oppo- 
sition to the government crushed. Causes of the extreme 
debility of defence. People apparently anxious to be 
conquered. 

November 16. To the Secretary of State . . . 227 
An audience with the Stadtholder. News of the armies. 
Arrest of General Eustace. Sentence upon Visscher and 
associates. Release of Eustace. 

November 19. To the Secretary of State . . . 230 

Little prospect of a general peace. Britain to continue 
the war. Declaration of France as to other countries. 
Difficulty of getting intelligence. Conversation with 
the Portuguese minister. As to starving a nation. 
Effect of a cold season. 

November 22. To James Monroe 235 

The case of Boylston's vessel, and its importance to 
interests of the United States. Burden of additional in- 
surance on ships. Hopes for a correspondence. 

November 24. To the Secretary of State . . . 237 
American commerce and treaty with the Netherlands. 
Merchants uncommunicative. Contraband articles. 
Discriminating duties. Signs of a peace. The Polish 
insurrection. Escape of Lafayette. A cockade distrib- 
uted. 

December 2. To the Secretary of State . . . . 241 
Effect of rumors of peace. Great Britain to continue 
the war. Position of the Netherlands. English refused 
admission to Delft. 

December 2. To John Jay 244 

Conclusion of Jay's negotiation. Desire for peace. 
Application of Voltravers. 



xvi CONTENTS 



PAGE 



December 3. To John Adams 246 

Situation of Dumas and Luzac. No real prospects of 
peace. The Netherlands and a protector. Relations 
with Baron St. Helens. 

December 22, To the Secretary of State . . . 248 
Meeting with Van der Spiegel. Case of an American 
vessel. Reported discontent among the negroes at Dem- 
arara. Restrictions on commerce. Conduct of General 
Eustace. Consuls in the Dutch West Indies. Case of 
Eustace. 

December 21. To John Adams 254 

Commissioners for peace with France. Great want of 
money. The Dutch representative to the United States. 

1795 
January 3. To the Secretary of State . . . 255 

Application from the Sardinian charge. Reasons for 
denying his requests. 

January 7. To the Secretary of State . . . 258 

Negotiations for a peace with France. The necessity 
for it and the consequences. 

January 19. To the Secretary of State . . . 260 
The French enter Amsterdam. Provisional munici- 
pality appointed and in charge of affairs. Stadtholder 
probably out of the country. 

January 22. To the Secretary of State . . . 263 
Commissioners from the Convention. Order and dis- 
cipline preserved. Protection of American property. 

January 24. To the Secretary of State . . . 266 
Conversation with Schimmelpenninck. Modifications 
of administrative Institutions. 



CONTENTS 



XVll 



PACK 



February i. To the Secretary of State . . , 268 
Interview with the French representatives. Exodus of 
members of the diplomatic corps. A descent upon Eng- 
land considered. 

February 2. To the Secretary of the Treasury . 270 

Unfavorable conditions for a loan. Interest payable 
at Antwerp not sent to that place. Attitude of the 
bankers at Amsterdam. Certain incidents connected 
with banking operations. 

February 5. To the Secretary of State . . . 274 
Visit to Paulus, President of the Assembly. Reflec- 
tions on the revolution. Relations with the United 
States. A direct commerce with the Netherlands. 

February 12. To John Adams 276 

Advance of the French army. Measure for peace with 
France. Entry of French into Amsterdam. Changes 
in the city's administration. The provincial government 
constituted. Discipline of the army. A convention to 
frame a constitution in prospect. Friends in power. 
The French representatives and Pichegru. Effect upon 
the system of Europe. 

February 15. To the Secretary of State . . . 285 
The Dutch commissioners at Paris. What they rep- 
resent. Objects of the Revolutionary Committee. 
Relative situation of the Netherlands and France. 
Address to the Convention. Arrest of Lelyveld. Na- 
tional independence and sovereignty. 

February 19. To the Secretary of State . . . 291 
Regulation of the import of flour. Acts of the new 
States General. Reply of the Convention to the Dutch 
Commissioners. Address to the French representatives. 
Boundaries of France. System of moderation pursued. 
A state of war to continue. Universal suffrage. W ith- 
drawal of the French army. The use of English in 
official communications. Eustace at Paris. 



1 



xviii CONTENTS 



PAGE 



February 22. To Sylvanus Bourne .... 297 

Letter from Monroe. A mysterious affair. Will do 
what he is able to help Madame de Lafayette. 

February 25. To the Secretary of State . . . 29S 

Ministers from Holland to France. Leyden professors 
dismissed. Address to the troops of the Netherlands. 
Little prospect of a general pacification. Conquest in 
view. Dismissal of Van Hees. 

March 17. To the Secretary of State .... 301 

Foreign communications interrupted. A tranquil con- 
dition and changes in government. Naval matters. 
Loans demanded of the cities. Fate of the country un- 
decided. Forms and substance of independence. Cir- 
culation of paper money. 

March 19. To the Secretary of State .... 305 

Friendly dispositions towards the United States. Law 
prohibiting export of specie. A temporary regulation 
and enforcement discretionary. American vessels 
stopped at the Texel. Interview with Alquier. Private 
and public property. Use of English in official commu- 
nications. 

April I. To John Adams 310 

Policy of the Patriots, old and new. A convention 
for forming a constitution. Presence of the French re- 
presses disorder. Navy and finances. Neutral com- 
merce encouraged. Paris Convention takes measures 
against dissolution by violence. 

April 7. To THE Secretary of State . . . .316 

All plate called in to be coined. Rumored peace be- 
tween France and Prussia and the effect. Treatment of 
Amsterdam by Assembly. Jealousy among the prov- 
inces. France will prevail. Military events. 



CONTENTS xix 

f^r.T. 

April 10. To THE Secretary of the Treasury . .321 
Interest on the Antwerp loan. Remittances prevented. 
Attitude of the Amsterdam bankers. Remittance to 
Mr. Pinckney. A new loan out of the question. 

April 14. To the Secretary of State .... 326 
Outbreak in Paris. Arrest of members of the Conven- 
tion. Purpose of the commotion. Negotiations between 
France and Prussia. Ministers of the Netherlands not 
received at Paris. The Dutch republic ruined. Euro- 
pean intelligence. 

April 25. To Abigail Adams 331 

Popular societies in the Netherlands. Has been asked 
to become a member. Has been entirely neutral. 
Public opinion in France. 

May I. To the Secretary of State .... 334 
Causes of recent outbreaks. The Netherlands' rela- 
tion to France. Stories about the treaty with Prussia. 
Rumored restoration of the Stadtholder. Alliance with 
France. Spirit of party prevails. The European horizon. 

May 4. To John Adams 339 

Uncertainties of letters. Gratified by notice of his 
first communication. Van Staphorst. Situation of the 
American minister. Political future of the Netherlands. 
Democracy in France. 

May 14. To the Secretary of State .... 344 
Secret mission from the French Convention. General 
situation in the Netherlands and Europe. The Dutch 
navy. Conversation with Sieyes on the Jay treaty. 

May 19. To the Secretary of State .... 348 
Terms of a treaty between the Netherlands and France. 
New election in Amsterdam. Change in policy of Euro- 
pean cabinets. Neutrality of the United States. Scarc- 
ity of provisions. 



XX CONTENTS 



PAGE 



May 22. To John Adams 353 

Reflections upon his own position. The Dutch-French 
treaty interpreted. Centre of combination among the 
powers. Intentions of France and the Jay treaty. War 
between the United States and Great Britain. France 
less cordial to America. Effect of ratifying the treaty. 
Cost of French friendship. Internal state of France 
critical. 

June 24. To the Secretary of State .... 363 

Popular societies in the Netherlands. Opposed to 
moderation. Their demands at Rotterdam. How 
settled for the time. Feeling against former government. 

June 25. To the Secretary of State .... 368 

Plan for a national convention. Indifference to theo- 
ries of government. The Rotterdam affair. Treaty with 
France ratified. The new French constitution and its 
provisions for legislature and executive. 

June 27. To John Adams 371 

Approbation is pleasant to him. No confidence in 
Eustace. Insurrection at Paris. Renewed war in La 
Vendee. Death of Louis XVII. Naval superiority of 
Britain. Forgery and famine. Invective and spirit of tur- 
bulence. The Rotterdam incident. The new Consti- 
tution. Has received instructions for his conduct. 

June 29. To Abigail Adams ...... 380 

Austin's defeat for state senator. Answer to the 
Chronicle. 

July 27. To John Adams ....... 381 

Proposition for a National Convention. The new 
French Constitution. Opposition to the Convention. 
Little prospect of tranquillity. Conflict of songs. Mil- 
itary movements. Future of European monarchies. 
Situation in the Netherlands. 



CONTENTS xxi 



PAOr. 



August 15. To Sylvanus Bourne 390 

The consular office, appointments and salaries. 

August 20, To THE Secretary of State . . . 392 

Regulation of passports. Naturalized citizens. Mis- 
use of the flag of the United States. Consuls and their 
emoluments. 

August 25. Letter of Credence 396 

August 25. Instructions . v 397 

August 31. To John Adams 400 

French Constitution adopted. Sieyes' plan of a con- 
stitution rejected. System of balances. Election of a 
new legislature. Dissolution of the popular societies. 
Division of the Moderates. French influence in Amer- 
ica, A national convention. Navy, commerce, and 
finance. 

September 12. To John Adams 408 

Ambition and affections gratified by approbation. 
Intention of involving the United States in the war. 
Europe anti-republican. The Jay treaty. Power of 
Great Britain. Connections with France. The new 
Constitution. Dependent condition of the Netherlands. 
The corps diplomatique. Recall of Van Berckel. 
Dumas' vindication. 

September 15. To Charles Adams 4^7 

The Presidency and John Adams. Revolutions of 
public opinion. Treatment of Jay. 

October 12. To Daniel Sargent 4^9 

Peace the policy of the United States. 

October 16. To W. & J. Willink and N. & J. Vas 

Staphorst and Hubbard ..... 420 
Instructions and sales. Position explained. Payment 
of interest to De Wolf. 



xxli CONTENTS 



PAGE 



October 31. To John Adams 423 

Mission to London without attractions. Promotion 
in the service. Is satisfied with the situation at The 
Hague. 

November 4. To Charles Adams 426 

Question of a National Assembly. Aristocracy and 
republicanism. 

November 15. To Timothy Pickering .... 427 
Randolph and the oppositten to the British treaty. 
General peace probable. Bread riots and insults to the 
king. Measures for his protection. 

November 17. To John Adams 43° 

Randolph's resignation. Members of French direc- 
tory. Position of Sieyes. Conditions at Paris. 

December 5. To the Secretary of State . . . 434 
Conference with Lord Grenville. Compensation to 
commissioners under the Jay treaty. Questions of con- 
demned cargoes. Order on American provision vessels. 
Compensation for what is taken. Importance of ques- 
tion to the United States. Delivery of the Western 
posts. Reparation for violation of territorial jurisdic- 
tion. Revocation of Consul Moore's exequatur. Im- 
pressment of seamen from American ships. Secretaries 
to the commissions. Reflections on the matters in con- 
ference. 

December 9. To Lord Grenville 449 

His diplomatic character and the presentation to the 
king. 

December 15. To the Secretary of State . . . 450 
Attempt to give him a diplomatic character other than 
the true one. Search for a motive. 

December 16. To Sylvanus Bourne .... 453 
Attacks upon the President. Randolph's resignation. 



CONTENTS xxlii 



PAGI 



December 19. To the Secretary of State . . . 454 

Alienage and residence. Neutral trade. Case of the 
Dutch ships. Blockades. Transfer of property. Pot- 
ash not contraband. Cases before the Lords of Appeal. 
No strong reliance on verbal declarations. 

December 22. To Timothy Pickering .... 461 

British expedition to the West Indies. Ambition for 
maritime supremacy. Interests of the United States. 
No commercial liberality in Great Britain. West Ind- 
ian produce in neutral vessels. Imports of grain. 

December 24. To Sylvanus Bourne .... 466 
Affairs in the United States. Prosperity and neutral- 
ity. President Washington. Treaties and French in- 
fluence. Americans and France. 

December 29. To John Adams 470 

On performing a public service. Commercial negotia- 
tion with Great Britain. Grenville and Hammond. 
Relaxation of the navigation laws. The order of No- 
vember, 1793. Abuse of President and its purpose. 

1796 

February 10. To John Adams 47^ 

Randolph's Vindication. British hostility to the 
United States. 

March 20. To John Adams 47^ 

Peace desired. Great Britain and France to negotiate, 
but dread peace. Burke's pamphlet. 

April 4. To John Adams 4°! 

Anti-neutral views of the French government. A new 
French minister and Paine. Randolph and the treaty 
obligations. Attack upon Washington. Exciting fear 
in ruling men. Remodelling the government of the 
United States. The Western posts. Maritime suprem- 
acy. 



xxiv CONTENTS 



PAGE 



May 30. Commission to Portugal 488 

June 4. To the Secretary of State .... 489 
Combination against British commercial supremacy. 
Changes in the Netherlands. 

June 6. To John Adams 49° 

Effect of resolution on the Jay treaty. French influ- 
ence and party manoeuvring. Paine's pamphlet on 
English finance. 

June 9. To Charles Adams 493 

France not favorable to American union. Impor- 
tance of the union. 

June II. From the Secretary of State . . . 494 

His appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to Por- 
tugal. 

June 15. To Madame de Lafayette .... 496 
Was unable to comply with her wish, but referred it 
to Mr. Pinckney. Anxious to do all in his power for 
her aid. 

June 24. To John Adams ....... 497 

The Jay treaty. Surrender of the Western posts. 
Good faith of the British government. Danger of 
American commerce. Method of English attack. Check 
to commercial speculation. Importance of neutral 
policy. System pursued by France. Opinion in Amer- 
ica on European affairs. , Importance of ^orders of Privy 
Council. 



WRITINGS 



OF 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



WRITINGS OF JOHN OUINCY ADAMS 



TO ARTHUR LEE » 
„ Alliance, Minden, May , 1770. 

biR, 

I have received a volume entitled "Fondemens de la 
Jurisprudence naturelle, traduit du Latin, de Mr. Pestel, 
professeur en Droit public a Leyde," which you did me the 
honour to send me as a present. I entreat you, sir, to accept 
of my sincere thanks for the proof of your attention to me. 

* From the original in the New York Public Library. In November, 1777, Con- 
gress determined to recall Silas Deane from France, and on the 28th chose John Ad- 
ams to be his successor. He accepted the appointment, and on February 13, 1778, 
with his son John Quincy Adams, then a boy of ten years old, embarked on the frigate 
Boston, lying in the roadstead of Boston. The story of the voyage is told in the 
Diary of John Adams, printed in Life and Works of John Adams, III. 94; and the 
Ms. log-book of the captain, Samuel Tucker, is in the Adams Mss. As fellow- 
passengers were Jesse, son of Silas Deane, and a son of William Vernon, of the Con- 
tinental Navy Board, both about the same age as John Quincy Adams; also two 
French officers returning to France and the French surgeon of the vessel, Nicholas 
Noel, of whom the young Adams received some lessons in French. They landed 
at Bordeaux, April i, and arrived at Paris, April 8. Six days later the 
son was placed with Le Coeur, master of the academy or pension at Passy, 
and he went "much pleased with the prospect, because he understood 
that rewards were given to the best scholars, which, he said, was an en- 
couragement. Dancing, fencing, music, and drawing are taught at this school, as 
well as French and Latin." kdzms, Works, III. 132. Jesse Deane and Benjamin 
Franklin Bache, later the editor of the Philadelphia Aurora, were placed in the same 
pension. Nearly a year passed when the father resolved to return to America, and 
intended to sail In the frigate Alliance, from Nantes. The French government 
changed her destination, and after a delay of three months at Nantes and L'Orient, 
father and son embarked on the French frigate Sensible, having as fellow-passengers 
the new minister to the United States, M. de la Luzerne, and his secretary of legation, 
Barbe de Marbois. Sailing June 17, 1779, the ship arrived at Boston, August 2. 

B I 



2 THE WRITINGS OF [1780 

It was very good in you, to turn my }-oung head to such a 
subject so important in itself, and likely to be particularly 
so to our Country. I will endeavour to make the best use 
of it I can, as soon as I shall be able to comprehend it. 

Please to present my Respects to your Nephew, and 
believe me with great Veneration, yours etc. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Leyden, December 21st, 1780.^ 
Honoured Sir, 

Mr. Thaxter and brother Charles wrote both to you 

the day before yesterday, and as I had no subject to write 

Under date June 20 the father wrote in his Diary : " The Chev'alier de la Luzerne 
and Al. Marbois are in raptures with my son. They get him to teach them the lan- 
guage. I found this morning the Ambassador seated on the cushion in our state- 
room, M. Marbois in his cot, at his left hand, and m}' son stretched out in his, at 
his right. The Ambassador reading out loud in Blackstone's Discourse at his 
entrance on his Professorship of the Common Law at the L'niversity, and my son 
correcting the pronunciation of every word and syllable and letter. The Ambassa- 
dor said he was astonished at my son's knowledge; that he was a master of his own 
language, like a professor. AL Marbois said, your son teaches us more than you ; 
he has point de grace, point d'eloges. He shows us no mercy, and makes us no com- 
pliments. We must have Mr. John." Works, III. 214. 

On September 27, 1779, John Adams was chosen by Congress to be minister pleni- 
potentiary for negotiating a treaty of peace and a treaty of commerce with Great 
Britain, and Francis Dana to be his secretary. The French minister offered the 
Sensible for their passage, and on November 13 they went on board the vessel in 
Boston harbor, with John Quincy Adams, then twelve years, and his brother Charles, 
nine years old. They landed at Ferrol, Spain, December 8, and went by land to 
Paris, where the two boys were placed in Le Coeur's pension. John Adams, Works, 
in. 229. With this journey the Diary of John Quincy Adams really begins, for in the 
previous year his father had given him pencil and pencil-book, and told him to note 
the events which happened to him, the objects seen, and the persons conversed with 
from day to day. He also received a blank-book in which to preserve copies of all 
his letters. The record was not complete, and intervals occurred without notes or 
letters, with promises of greater industry and perseverance. 

1 Beginning with September, 1780, he and his brother Charles attended the Latin 
School at Amsterdam, whose history went back to 1342. He notes little of his 



i78o] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3 

upon I did not write. But I can now give you an account 
of our journey. 

We dined on Monday at Haerlem, and arrived at Leydcn 
at six o'clock. We lodged at the Cour de Hollande and saw 
Mr. Waterhouse ^ that evening. The next day we went to 
hear a medicinal lecture by Professor Horn. We saw several 
experiments there. In the afternoon we went to hear a 
law lecture by Professor Pestel? Each lecture lasts an hour. 
Yesterday afternoon we moved from the Cour de Hollande 
to private lodgings in the same house in which Mr. Waterhouse 
boards. Our address is Mr. &c. by de Heer Welters, op de 
L lange Burg, tegen over 6 Mantel Huis, Leyden. 

I was to day in company with the parson of the brownist 
church, who seems to be a clever man. He is a scotch-man, 
j but does not pray for the King of England. 

I should be glad to have a pair of scates. They are of 
j various prices, from 3 guilders to 3 ducats. Those of a 
ducat are as good as need to be, but I should like to know 
whether you would chuse to have me give so much. 

ill ... . 

studies in his "journal," save that he and his brother had a separate room for 
study, "because we do not understand the Dutch," and every Wednesday and 
jl Saturday they went to their father's lodging for the stated holidays. He was read- 
ing the Spectator, the Tatler, and the Guardian, from which he made extracts in his 
journal. John Adams notes in his Diary, January ii, 1781 : "Was present from 
12 to I o'clock, when the preceptor gave his lessons in Latin and Greek to my 
sons. His name is Wensing. He is apparently a great master of the two languages ; 
besides which, he speaks French and Dutch very well; understands little English, 
but is desirous of learning it; he obliges his pupils to be industrious, and they both 
made great progress for the time ; he is pleased with them, and they with him. John 
is transcribing a Greek Grammar, of his master's composition, and Charles, a Latin 
one; John is also transcribing a treatise on Roman antiquities, of his master's 
writing. The master gives his lessons in French." JVorks of John Adams, HL 269. 
In this month John was matriculated into the University of Leydcn, " the most cele- 
brated university in Europe." Here he remained until he went to St. Petersburg as 
secretary to Francis Dana, chosen in March, 1781, to be minister to Russia. 

1 Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1S46). - Fricdrich Wilhelm Pestel (1724-1805). 



4 THE WRITINGS OF [1781 

Mr. Waterhouse says that for riding I must have a pair 
leather breeches and a pair of boots. I should be glad if you 
would answer me upon that as soon as you receive this for 
there is a vacancy [vacation] here which begins tomorrow, 
and in the vacancy is the best time to begin to learn how to 
ride. 

In the vacancy there will be no lectures at all, but our 
Master will attend us all the while, as much as when there 
is no vacancy. 

I continue writing in Homer, the Greek grammar and 
Greek testament every day. I am your most dutiful son. 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

St. Petersburg, August 21, 1781, O.S. 
Honour'd Sir : 

We arrived here on Monday the 16/27 inst't, having 
left Amsterdam the 7th of July (N.S.) and rode the greatest 
part of the way day and night. The distance is about 2400 
English miles. 

The first place of any consequence we stopp'd at was 
Berlin, the capital of the King of Prussia's Dominions ; 
this is a very pretty town, much more so than Paris, or 
London, as Mr. Dana says ; but it will be still more so if 
the present King's ^ plan is adopted by his successor, for 
wherever there is a row of low, small houses, he sends the 
owners out of them, pulls them down, and has large, elegant 
houses built in the same place, and then sends the owners in 
again. But notwithstanding this, he is not beloved in Ber- 
lin, and every body says publicly what he pleases against 
the King ; but as long as they do not go further than words, 

^ Frederick II, the Great. 



i78i] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 5 

he don't take any notice of it, but says that as long as they 
give him all he asks they may say what they will. 

But they have great reason to complain of him, for he 
certainly treats them like slaves. Among other things, if a 
farmer has two or more sons the eldest inherits all the land 
and all the others (when of age) are soldiers for life at a 
gros[chen] and a half, which is about two pence sterling per 
day, and they must with that find their own provisions ; if a 
farmer has but one son he inherits his land. Whenever a vaca- 
tion [vacancy] happens in any regiment, he chooses one of his 
subjects to fill the place, and this subject from that time be- 
comes a soldier for life; everybody that is tall enough is 
subject to this law. In peace time the native troops are 
disbanded nine months in a year, and in all that time their 
pay ceases and they must get their living as they can. 

There is nothing very remarkable in Dantzic, Konigs- 
berg, or Riga; in coming to this last we pass'd through 
Courland, a province which does, strictly speaking, be- 
long to Poland. But Russia has much more influence 
I there than Poland itself. In that Province all the Farmers 
are in the most abject slavery ; they are bought and sold 
like so many beasts, and are sometimes even chang'd for 
dogs or horses. Their masters have even the right of life and 
death over them, and if they kill one of them they are only 
obliged to pay a trifling fine; they may buy themselves, 
but their masters In general take care not to let them grow 
rich enough for that; if anybody buys land there he must 
buy all the slaves that are upon it. 

Narva is the last place which we stopped at before our 
arrival here. It is a small Insignificant town, but will be 
always famous for the battle fought there. As to this place, 
I have not been here long enough to know much about it ; 
but by what we have seen of it I think it to be still handsomer 



6 THE WRITINGS OF [1781 

than Berlin. The streets are large and the houses very well 
built, but it is not yet half finish'd, and will require another 
century to be rendered compleat. 

Just before we got to Berlin, by the carelessness of a 
postilion, our carriage overset and broke, so that Mr. Dana 
was obliged to buy another there ; but luckily no body was 
hurt by the fall.^ 

Nothing else extraordinary befell us on our journey. 

I am your dutiful son. 

1 The story of Dana's mission is given in Wharton's Diplomatic Correspondence 
of the Revolution, I. 574, and his despatches to Congress are printed in the same 
compilation. The French ambassador at St. Petersburg, the Marquis de Verac, 
could not speak English, nor Dana French, and young Adams proved of service. 
Five years later Abigail Adams met Verac in London, and wrote to her son that 
" The Marquis de Verac inquired after you with great politeness : said you were 
interpreter for him and Mr. Dana when you were at St. Petersburg." Abigail 
Adams to John Quincy Adams, September 27, 1786. Ms. In 1787 the usual allow- 
ance for a private secretary was given to Judge Dana and paid to Adams. Life 
and Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 262. Writing on February 5, 1782, 
John Adams said: "It is a mortification to me to find that you write better in a 
foreign language than in your mother tongue. Your letters discover a judgment 
beyond your age, but your style is not yet formed in French or English." Ms. 

He read Voltaire on St. Petersburg, and did not find the description correct in 
every particular; and having left his Littleton's Latin-English Dictionary at the 
Hague, he desires it be sent to him, as "this is not a very good place for learning 
the Latin or Greek languages, as there is no academy or school here, and but very 
few private teachers, who demand at the rate of 90 pounds sterling a year for an 
hour and a half each day. Mr. Dana don't chuse to employ any at that extrava- 
gant price without your positive orders, but I hope I shall be able to go on alone." 
To his father, October 12/23, 1 78 1. In reply to an expression of surprise from the 
father he wrote, "There is nobody here but Princes and Slaves, the Slaves cannot 
have their children instructed, and the nobility that chuse to have their's send 
them into foreign countries. There is not one school to be found in the whole 
city." Ibid., January 1/12, 1782. Fortunately there was an English library to 
which Mr. Dana subscribed. Here Adams found Hume and Mrs. Macaulay, and 
he began to study the German language. As nothing could be accomplished by 
the mission, he wisely decided to return to Holland, and in October, 17S2, a year 
before Dana left St. Petersburg, he set out on his long journey. Leaving the 
Russian capital October 30, he did not reach the Hague until April 21, 1783. His 



1783] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 7 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

Hague, July 23d, 1783. 
Honoured Mamma : 

It is indeed a long time since I have received any letters 
from my friends in America, and I must own I have been a 
little behind hand within these two years, in writing to 
them. However, I hope they will consider that I have 
been all that time almost at the world's end, or to make the 
best of it, in such an out of the way place, as made it very 
inconvenient for me to write. But, I should think myself 
I deficient in my duty, if I should let pass the present oppor- 
tunity, without giving you some account of my travels, 
since I left Mr. Dana. 

I set off from Petersburg the 19/30 of last October, in 

father was at that time at Paris, and Adams began to study Latin and Greek under 
C. W. F. Dumas, a man of letters, the editor of Vattel, and secret agent in Holland 
of the United States. On his journey he had made some inquiries on the prospect 
of commercial relations between the United States and Sweden and Denmark. 
The Swedes "are In general good friends to America, but seem to be a little afraid 
for their mines; however they are very well disposed for carrying on commerce 
with America, and there is a merchant here named Cederstrom, who has a brother 
lately settled in Boston. Mr. Eberstein the first merchant in Norrkoping only 
waits for an opportunity to send some ships. Mr. Brandenburg, in Stockholm, 
intends to send a Vessel to some part of America this spring. He desired me to 
let him know what would be the best articles he could send, and gave me a list 
of the exports of Sweden, a copy of which I have sent to Mr. D[ana], desiring him 
to answer Mr. Brandenburg as I was not certain myself about the matter." To 
his father, Gothenburg, February i, 1783. "As to this country [Denmark] I 
cannot tell what sort of trade we shall be able to carry on with it; however, there 
is already a person designed to be as the minister of this court in our country, and 
everybody here say they never doubted of the Independence of America; but 
things have greatly changed here within these three months." To his father, 
Copenhagen, February 20, 1783. Richard Soderstrom came to Boston, and was 
consul of Sweden; but difficulties arose in connection with commercial transac- 
tions of his brother Carl Soderstrom, of Gottenburg. Diplomatic Correspondence, 
1783-1789 (Sparks), HI. 796, 



8 THE WRITINGS OF [1783 

company with Count Greco, an Italian gentleman, with 
whom I was acquainted, at that place ; and on account of 
the badness of the roads and weather, and of our having a 
great number of considerable water passages, which had 
began to freeze over, did not arrive in Stockholm, the capi- 
tal of Sweden, until the 25th of November. The distance 
is about 800 English miles. I stayed at Stockholm about 
six weeks, and was much pleased with the polite manner in 
which the people of the country treat strangers. Sweden 
is the country in Europe which pleases me the most, that 
is, of those I have seen, because their manners resemble 
more those of my own country than any I have seen. The 
King is a man of great ability.^ In the space of one day 
from being the most dependent, he rendered himself one 
of the most absolute monarchs of Europe. But he is ex- 
tremely popular, and has persuaded his people that they 
are free, and that he has only restored them their ancient 
constitution. They think they are free, and are therefore 
happy. However, in the interior parts of the Kingdom, he 
has lost a little of his popularity, because he has laid some 
heavy taxes upon brandy and some other articles. 

I left Stockholm the 31st of December and was obliged 
to stop at a small town, called Norrkoping, at about 120 
miles from Stockholm, for a fortnight, because of a very 
heavy fall of snow, which happened just at that time. I 
stopped also about three weeks at Gottenburg, and arrived 
at Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark (it is about 600 
miles from Stockholm), the 15th of February, of the present 

^ Gustavus III reigned 1771-1791. Determining to free himself from the su- 
premacy of the aristocracy which had so trammelled his predecessors, he gathered 
round him a number of young officers, and in August, 1772, defied the Diet and 
won his end. He obtained a power which he used for advancing the prosperity 
of the people, but the extravagance of his court necessitated burdensome taxation. 
He was assassinated by an agent of some of the nobles. 



1783] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 9 

year. I found there Count Greco, who had taken a differ- 
ent road from Stockholm. He had taken a place in a vessel, 
which was to sail three days after my arrival, for Kiel, a 
town in Germany, near Hamburg. Not to lose the oppor- 
tunity, I had a place in the same vessel, but after having 
waited three weeks for a good wind, the harbor froze up, 
and we were obliged, after all, to go to Hamburg by land. 
The people in Denmark treat strangers with a great deal 
of politeness and civility, but not with the same opcn- 
heartedness, which they do in Sweden. The government 
is entirely monarchical. But it astonishes me that a whole 
people can place at the head of their government such a 
man as the King of Denmark,^ because his father was a 
king. The hereditary prince, it seems, is, at least, possessed 
of common sense, and is regarded in the country as a prodigy, 
as he indeed is, if he is compared to his father. 

I arrived at Hamburg (which is about 300 English miles 
from Copenhagen) on the nth of March. I stayed there 
near a month. It is a large city, quite commercial, and 
will, I dare say, carry on hereafter a great deal of trade 
with America. But its commerce is somewhat restrained, 
because it is surrounded by the dominions of the King of 
Denmark, and of the Elector of Hanover.^ The Danes 
have built a town, at about a quarter of a mile from Ham- 
burg, which is become now its rival In commerce. The 
Hamburgers have named this place Al-to-na, which signifies, 
much too near, as, indeed, it is for their commercial interests. 

The last city where I made my stay, before I arrived at 
Amsterdam, was Bremen, which is another commercial Re- 

* Christian VII, son of Frederick V. Coming to the throne in 1766, he fell into 
such imbecility as to be incapable of ruling, and after 1784 the government was 
that of his son, the Crown Prince, as regent. 

^ George William Frederick, George III of Great Britain. 



10 THE WRITINGS OF [1783 

public, but the city is much smaller than Hamburg. It 
was anciently one of the Hanseatic league, and has been in 
a much more flourishing condition than it is at present. 
There are at Bremen some public cellars, which are famous. 
I drank there some Rhenish wine, about 160 years old. 
I stayed only four days at Bremen and arrived at Amster- 
dam the 15th, and at this place the 21st of April, and here 
I have been ever since. Hamburg is about 450 English 
miles from this place. 

Last night, at about 11 o'clock, Pappa arrived here from 
Paris, all alone, only accompanied by a servant. He in- 
tends to return to Paris in about three weeks. ^ . . . 



TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

Paris, September loth, 1783. 
Honoured Mamma : 

As you have ordered me in a letter, which I have lately 
received, to give you my observations on the countries 
thro' which I have travelled, the following are some upon 
Russia ; but, I must previously beg you will remember, 
that you say in your letter that you expect neither the 
precision of a Robertson, nor the elegance of a Voltaire ; 
therefore, you must take them as they are. 

The government of Russia is entirely despotical ; the 
sovereign is absolute in all the extent of the word.- The 
persons, the estates, the fortunes of the nobility depend 
entirely upon his caprice. And the nobility have the same 
power over the people, that the sovereign has over them. 

^ The son accompanied the father to Paris, where he served as an additional 
secretary. 

^ At this time Catherine II, who had gained the throne by deposing her weali 
husband, Peter III. 



1783] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 11 

The nation Is wholly composed of nobles and serfs, or, in 
other words, of masters and slaves. The countryman is 
attached to the land in which he is born ; if the land is 
sold, he Is sold with it, and he is obliged to give to his land- 
lord the portion of his time which he chooses to demand. 
It is commonly two days in the week, I think. Others 
make them pay a sort of tax, of two or three rubles a year. 
(N.B. that a ruble is four shillings sterling, or thereabouts.) 
This makes a large revenue for the landlords. If they have 
a great number of serfs, and there are some of the nobles 
who have an amazing quantity of them. Out of each five 
hundred they are obliged to furnish one to the Empress 
every year, and this forms her army. I have been assured 
from good authority, that there is one nobleman who 
furnishes 1300 men a year to the Empress. According to 
that the number of his slaves would be 650,000. Suppos- 
ing each of these slaves pay him a ruble a year his revenue 
will be more than ioo,ooo£ Sterling per annum. 

This form of government Is disadvantageous to the 
sovereign, to the nobles and to the people. For first. It 
exposes the sovereign every moment to revolution, of which 
there have been already four In the course of this century; 
vizt. when Anne, Dutchess of Courland, was set upon the 
throne,^ which was the right of Elizabeth, daughter of 
Peter the first. This was done by some noblemen, who 
wanted to limit the prerogatives of the sovereign, and be 
more powerful themselves. And they thought they would 
find Anne more ready to agree to their stipulations than 
Elizabeth, because she had no right to the crown ; but 
she soon overturned all their schemes. For as soon as she 
found herself well seated upon the throne, she rendered 

' In 1730. She reigned just ten years, and was much under the influence of 
Germans, and especially of Biren, a Courlander. 



12 THE WRITINGS OF [1783 

herself absolute, by reinstating the ancient form of govern- 
ment, and banished all those who had made these restric- 
tions. This was the second revolution. The third was 
when Elizabeth dethroned Ivan,^ an infant of six months 
old, and had him shut up In a tower, where he lived twenty 
years, and was then murdered in It. And the 4th, when 
Peter the third was dethroned by the present Empress.^ 
This, I think, Is sufficient proof that the government is 
disadvantageous for the sovereign. Secondly, as the nobles 
all depend wholly upon the sovereign, they are always in 
danger of their estates being confiscated and themselves 
sent into Siberia. It Is commonly the fate of the favorites. 
MenzicoflF, the Dolgorouckis, Blren, Bestucheff, Osterman, 
L'Estocq, all these have been the sport of fortune, for some 
time the favorites of the Emperors, and then sent to Siberia 
into exile, there to live in misery. The history of Menzlcoff 
Is the most extraordinary, and he did not deserve the fate. 
He was born at Moscow. He was of low extraction, and 
used to carry about the streets, while a child, pies, and sing 
ballads. Peter the first saw him several times, and asked 
him several questions. His answers pleased him so much 
that he took him to the Palace, and, by degrees, he became 
the favorite of the Emperor, who gave him the title of 
Prince, and made him General of his Army, etc. At the 
battle of Pultowa, he saved the Empire, because a manoeuvre 
of his was the means of the battle's being decided In favor 
of the Emperor. During the whole reign of Peter the ist 
and that of Catherine, he was high In power, but, under 
that of Peter the 2d, he was stripped of all his dignities, 
his fortune, which was immense, was confiscated, and him- 

^ Ivan VI. The uprising, directed against the German adventurer and his 
following, occurred in 1741. Elizabeth Petrovna (daughter of Peter the Great) 
reigned until her death in December, 1761. ^ In 1762. 



1783] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 13 

self sent into exile, where he died in misery. This is very 
nearly the history of all the others. An author, who has 
written upon Russia, (Mannstein's Memoirs of Russia) 
says he has seen lands change masters three or four times 
in the course of a year. This is certainly not advantageous 
for the nobility. And, thirdly, as to the people nobody, I 
believe, will assert that a people can be happy who are 
subjected to personal slavery. Some of these serfs are 
immensely rich, but they are not free, and, therefore, they 
are despised ; besides they depend still upon the nobles, 
who make them contribute the more for their riches. A 
nobleman wants money. If he has any rich serfs, he sends 
and lets one of them know that he must have, at such a 
time, a thousand rubles (more or less, according to cir- 
cumstances). This the serf has a right to refuse, but in 
that case his landlord orders him to go and work upon 
such a piece of ground, so he is obliged either to give the 
money, or to go and work. The richer they are, the more 
the nobles prize them. Thus a common man costs but 80 
or 100 rubles, at most; but I have seen a man, who gave 
to his landlord, for his liberty, and that of his descendants, 
450,000 rubles. This proves the esteem they have for 
liberty, even where one would think they should not know 
that such a thing exists. 

As I am a little pressed for time, and as my letter has 
already run to a considerable length, I must, for the present 

subscribe myself, 

Your most dutiful son.^ 

1 As Mrs. Adams intended to join her husband in France, the son was sent to 
London to meet her. He sailed from Hellevoetsluys by the packet boat on May 
15, and reached Har\vich two days later, and London on the same day. On the 
l8th he wrote to his father: " Mr. Fox has at length carried the election for West- 
minster by a majority of 235 votes, and all the city was illuminated last evening. 
But Sir Cecil [Wray] hopes still to get the better by the verification of the votes. 



14 THE WRITINGS OF [1784 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, June 6th, 1784. 
Honoured Sir: 

• ••••• • 

In the course of the debate ^ the principal persons who 
spoke were on one side, Mr. Fox, Lord North, Mr. Sheri- 
dan and Mr. Lee ; on the other Mr. Pitt, Lord Mulgrave, 
Sir L. Kenyon, Mr. P. Arden and Mr. Wilberforce ; and if 
I may be allowed to give my opinion, Mr. Pitt is upon the 
whole the best and most pleasing speaker of them all. He 
has much grace in speaking and has an admirable choice of 
words. He speaks very fluently, so distinctly that I did 
not lose a word of what he said, and he was not once em- 
barrassed to express his ideas. Mr. Fox on the contrary 
speaks with such an amazing heat and rapidity that he 
often gets embarrassed and stammers some time before he 
can express himself. His ideas are all striking, but they 
flow upon him in such numbers that he cannot communi- 
cate them without difficulty. I should think he would 
carry all before him if he spoke to persons who were to be 
convinced by anything that was said. Lord North is very 
cool, but does not I think speak like either of the two before 
mentioned. Mr. Sheridan speaks extremely fast, and has 
a wonderful facility of expression, but is not so distinct as 
Mr. Pitt. There, Sir, in obedience to your command have 
I given you my opinion of the eloquence of several great 

Parliament met this day for the first time." At the end of the month the expected 
vessel arrived, but brought only letters. "The Cincinnati seem to be very much 
disliked the other side the Atlantic, several States have shown their disapproba- 
tion of them and it is supposed the order will be entirely annihilated. The House 
of Representatives of our State have taken some resolutions upon the subject, 
which I think quite noble." To his father, June I, 1784. 
* On the Westminster election. 



1784] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 15 

orators. If It is erroneous, my judgment is in fault, for I 
have followed in this matter the ideas of no one. The 
other day I met with Governor Pownall, who desired me 
to present his compliments to you. He wishes to know 
something about the business of the donation, but I told 
him I believed you had heard nothing of it. He is going 
to spend some time in the South of France. . . .^ 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, June i8th, 1784. 
Honored Sir : 

• • • • • • • 

I was in the House of Commons the day before yesterday 
again, and heard the debates upon the subject of parlia- 
mentary reform. I was witness to something very extraor- 
dinary. I mean that Mr. Fox spoke with Mr. Pitt in 
support of the motion, and Mr. Dundas, with Lord North 
against it. I have never been so much pleased with the 
debates as that day. Alderman Sawbridge moved for a 
committee to inquire into the state of parliamentary rep- 
resentation, and after several of the secondary speakers had 
delivered briefly their opinions. Lord North made a masterly 
speech against the motion, and was about two hours and 
an half delivering It. But Mr. Pitt, in a speech of a little 
more than an hour's length, took Lord N[orth]'s arguments 
all to pieces and turned them all against them. He spoke 
In a most striking and pathetic manner of the unfortunate 
situation In which this country now Is, and endeavored to 

1 "There is a young American here named Murray, from Maryland ; he is study- 
ing law in the Temple, and intends making a tour through Holland this summer, 
perhaps he will go over at the same time I do." To his father, June 15, 17S4. 
William Vans Murray succeeded Adams March 2, 1797, as minister to the Nether- 
lands. 



i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1784 

show that it was for the most part owing to the defects of 
the representation in Parliament. This speech confirmed 
me in my opinion that he is the best speaker in the house, 
and I really think that 

Take him for all in all 

I shall not look upon his like again. 

Mr. Dundas spoke for about half an hour against parlia- 
mentary reform, at least for the present time. Mr. Fox 
then spoke near an hour and a half extremely well for the 
motion. He made use of a great number of very artful 
and specious arguments against Mr, Pitt, and seemed as if 
he found some consolation for his misfortunes in [tea]sing 
the minister, tho' he spoke on the same side of the question. 
But tho' I don't pretend to say Mr. Pitt surpasses him in 
argumentation, yet I think nobody will deny that he does 
in the delivery. Mr. Fox has a small impediment in his 
speech, and one would think his nose was stopped by a 
cold when he speaks, whereas Mr. P[itt] has the clearest 
voice and most distinct pronunciation of any person I ever 
remember to have heard. But they are both very great 
men, and it is a real misfortune for this country that those 
talents which were made to promote the honor and the 
power of the nation should be prostituted to views of 
interest and of ambition. Your dutiful son.^ 

^ In July his mother and sister arrived in London, and he there joined them. 
The return to Paris and the life there are told in the Journal and Correspondence 
of Miss [Abigail] Adams, published in 1841 by her daughter Caroline Adams de 
VVindt. 

May 4, 1785, John Adams, then at Auteuil, received a commission, instructions, 
and letter of credence to the court of Great Britain. The son determined to re- 
turn to the United States and complete his education there. He embarked at 
I.'Orient in [the French packet Captain Le Fournier, May 21, 1785, and on Sun- 
day, July 17, the packet cast anchor in New York harbor. Adams wrote to his 
sister that he "was obliged to remain on deck all night in order to translate the 



1785] JOHN QUINCY ADAiMS 17 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

New York, August 3d, 1785. 
Dear Sir: 

Mr. Church proposes to embark on board the British 
packet, which is to sail to-morrow. He has offered to take 
my letters, and I suppose he will be the bearer of dispatches 
from Congress. Our passage, though it was not a stormy- 
one, was very tedious.^ Of eight weeks that we were at 
sea, we had at least four of such calm weather as not to 
proceed more than eight or ten leagues a day. As we 
were coming up the river, we met the other packet, which 
was sailing for France. I had only time to write a line 
and inform you of my arrival. I hope she has by this 
time performed a large part of her voyage, and that three 
weeks hence you will receive my letter. I shall remain 
here some days longer than I expected when I left you. 
As it was too late when I arrived here for me to be at Bos- 
ton before Commencement, I thought there was less neces- 
sity of my being in haste to go. The President - has been 
polite to me, even beyond what I could have expected ; he 
has given me an apartment in his house, where I have 
been these ten days. Mr. Jay was so kind before I came 
here to make me the same offer. 

The politicians here wait with great impatience to hear 
from you. Matters seem to be at a crisis. The British 

pilot's orders. Form to yourself an idea how I was puzzled to translate English 
sea terms that I did not understand into French sea terms which I knew no better." 
On the French packet met in the harbor at midnight, about to return to Europe, 
was Mrs. Catharine Macaulay. "I fancy she leaves the country with a less ex- 
alted idea of our virtues, than she had when she came to it." 

^ He left Auteuil May 12. 

* Richard Henry Lee, who was elected president of the Continental Congress, 
November 30, 1784, and served until Congress ended its session, November 4, 1785. 
c 



i8 THE WRITINGS OF [1785 

instead of delivering up the posts, have lately sent there a 
reinforcement of troops. I have heard from merchants here, 
that the fur trade from which we are thus precluded by an 
open breach of the Treaty of Peace, is worth annually 
50,000 pounds sterling. This may be overrated, but the 
reluctance the British show to leave the posts is sufficient 
proof that it is an important object. It is supposed that 
your next letters will give information on the subject, and 
let us know what is to be depended upon. 

The duties laid on imported goods by many of the States, 
and the prohibition of all English vessels in Massachu- 
setts, are another subject of much conversation. Mer- 
chants, who often adopt the proverb, that charity begins 
at home, endeavor to demonstrate that the country will 
suffer very much by these regulations. They say that all 
foreign nations will be discouraged from bringing us any 
goods while they are encumbered with such heavy imposts, 
and if we go for them ourselves, they will sell them only 
for money, which we have not. Many of them are still 
very much afraid of Great Britain. They dread a war, 
and in case she be not able to carry one on, they tremble 
lest she should shut her ports upon us and stop our trade 
with her West India Islands. They own that those Islands 
cannot subsist without us, but they think we could not 
hold out if we had no market to carry our productions to, 
so long as they could without them. You will easily see 
that this is the reasoning of a merchant who fears present 
losses, and does not consider future advantages. Fortu- 
nately the spirit of the people is different, and I doubt not, 
in case Great Britain should persist in her present conduct, 
sufficient firmness will be shown on this side the water. 
The State of Massachusetts have already prohibited all 
British vessels to come in their ports. A frigate appeared 



I7S5] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



19 



since the act was passed, but was not suffered to enter. 
The States have not given to Congress the power of regu- 
lating their trade, but it is almost universally considered 
here a necessary measure. The President of Congress is 
however much against it. He has written you by this 
opportunity, and perhaps he has given you his opinion upon 
the subject. 

You doubtless know before this, that Mr. Bowdoin was 
elected governor of Massachusetts at the last election, in 
the place of Mr. Hancock, who was chosen Member of 
Congress for the next session. The parties showed some 
rancor and acrimony at the time, but since the election 
everything has subsided, and the present Governor is very 
popular. It is generally supposed here that Mr. Hancock 
will next year be seated in the chair of Congress. I don't 
know however whether he has accepted the appointment.' 

Mr. Osgood, Mr. Walter Livingston, and Mr. Arthur Lee 
are the Commissioners of the Treasury. Mr. Lee was 
chosen a few days since, and has accepted.- The board 
could not be composed of persons more universally respected. 

Mr. de Marbois,^ it is said, will in a short time leave 

^ "Mr. Hancock, being too infirm to act as Governor of Massachusetts, is 
chosen as member of Congress for the next year, and will probably take his rest 
in the President's seat next November. This is escaping Scylla to fall into Charj-b- 
dis." To his sister, July 17, 1785. Hancock was chosen President of the Con- 
tinental Congress, November 23, 1785. *July 27, 1785. 

' Barbe Marbois (1745-1837) had served in the French diplomatic service in 
Germany before he received, in 1779, the appointment of Secretary of the French 
legation in the United States. He married in this country, and in 1785 was trans- 
ferred to the governorship of Santo Domingo, whence he returned to France in 
1790. Banished to Guiana during the French Revolution, he was recalled in 1801, 
and as Minister of finance negotiated the sale of Louisiana to the United States. 
Marbois had made his first voyage to the United States in the same frigate with 
John Adams and his son, and four years later an intercepted despatch from Mar- 
bois to Vergennes had an important influence in the peace negotiations, because 
of its disclosure of the attitude of France towards the United States. Works of 



20 THE WRITINGS OF [1785 

America, and Mr. Otto, formerly a secretary to the Cheva- 
lier de la Luzerne, is to succeed him. I believe he will 
not regret this country, nor do I think he will be much 
regretted himself. The Chevalier is supposed to be much 
more friendly to the country, and is much more respected 
here. Many persons wonder why a Minister is not sent 
from the Court of France. 

After reading this letter, you will perhaps think I had 
better be at my studies and give you an account of their 
progress than say so much upon politics. But while I am 
in this place I hear nothing but politics. When I get home 
I shall trouble my head very little about them. I propose 
leaving this next Monday the 8th inst., and shall certainly 
be in Boston by the 20th. I am your dutiful Son.^ 

John Adams, I. 669. His wife the younger Adams described as "a pretty little 
woman. She was a Quaker, but appears not to have retained any of the rigid 
tenets of that sect." 

^ Intending to enter Harvard in the Junior Sophister class, he learned that an 
acquaintance with certain authors whose writings he had not studied was essential, 
although he was otherwise as well prepared for admission as others of that class. 
His father describes the qualifications gained in European studies, in a letter to 
Benjamin Waterhouse, April 24, 1785, printed in Works of John Adams, IX. 530. 
The rules of the college could not be set aside, and at the end of September, 1785, 
he went to Haverhill. "The class had then gone through four books of Homer's 
Iliad, two of Xenophon's Cyropaedia, the Greek Testament; in Latin they had 
gone through the Odes and Satires of Horace and were in the Epistles; in English 
they had finished the study of Geography and that of Logic, and had entered 
upon Locke on the Understanding. It so happened that when I was examined, 
the only book which I was tried in that I had studied before I came to America 
was Horace. Immediately upon going to Mr. Shaw's I began upon the Greek 
Grammar, which I learnt through by heart. I then undertook the Greek Testa- 
ment, in which I went before I came here as far as the Epistle to Titus. In this 
I was not so far as the class. I also finished Horace and the Andria of Terence. 
In Logic I was equal with the class, and in Locke about 70 pages behind them, 
Guthrie's Geography I had also finished. On the 13th of last month I was ex- 
amined before the President, three professors and four tutors : three stanzas in 
the Carmen Seculare of Horace, six lines in the fourth book of the Iliad, a number 



1786] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 21 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Cambridge, May 21st, 1786, Sunday. 
Dear Sir : 

I am now much more at my disposal, with respect to my 

time, than I was at Haverhill, and can devote more of it 

to writing; though, it is said, this quarter, that is, the last 

of questions in Logic and In Locke and several in Geography were given to me." 
He was also asked to turn two English sentences into Latin, and was soon after 
told by the President that he was admitted and might live in the college — the 
latter an unexpected advantage. His roommate was Henry Ware, who had 
graduated the previous year and was described as "one of the best moral and literary 
characters in his cla^s." 

Adams remarked upon two matters in the college which could be altered for 
the better. "There is not sufficient communication between the classes. They 
appear to form four distinct orders of beings, and seldom associate together. . . . 
Another is, that the tutors are so very young. They are often chosen among 
bachelors that have not been out of college more than two years, so that their 
acquirements are not such as an instructor at this university ought to be possessed 
of. Another disadvantage of their being chosen so young is that they were the 
fellow scholars of those they are placed over, and consequently do not command so 
much respect as they seem to demand. However, take it all in all, I am strongly 
confirmed in your opinion, that this university is upon a much better plan than 
any I have seen in Europe." To his father, April 2, 1786. Ms. 

"I was obliged in the course of six months to go through the studies which are 
performed here in two years and nine months. So different had my studies been 
from those at this place, that I had not before last October looked into a book that 
I was examined in, except Horace. Had I arrived here three months earlier, it 
would have been easier to enter into the class which graduates next Commence- 
ment, than it has been to enter the one I am in. This would have advanced me 
one year, but there are a number of public exercises here that I should not have 
performed and which I think may be advantageous ; such is speaking in the Chapel, 
before all the classes, which I shall have to do in my turn four or five times before 
we leave college. Such also are the forensic disputations, one of which we are 
to have to-morrow. A question is given out by the tutor in metaphysics, for the 
whole class to dispute upon. They alternately affirm or deny the question, and 
write, each, two or three pages for or against, which is read in the Chapel before the 
tutor, who finally gives his opinion concerning the question. We have two or 
three questions every quarter. That for to-morrow is, whether the immortality 
of the human soul is probable from natural reason ? It comes in course for me to 



22 THE WRITINGS OF [1786 

of the Junior Sophister year, is more important and busy 
than any other in the four years. Mr. Williams' ^ lectures 
on natural philosophy render it so. His course consists of 
twenty-four lectures, thirteen of which we have already 
had. I have hitherto taken minutes while he was speaking, 
and written off after I came out as much as I could recol- 
lect of them. Some of my class have told me they were 
not worth the time and pains I have spent upon them; 
but I think they are, as they may serve to fix firmer in my 
mind the principles of an important branch of science, 
which I never before have studied. In my last letter to 
you I requested Desagulier's translation of '« Gravesande's 
in two volumes octavo.^ There Is 4to edition, but the other 
* is that which Is studied here. They are very scarce in this 
country, as they can neither be bought, nor borrowed out 
of college. We begin to recite in them tomorrow, but I 
shall endeavor to borrow them of some classmate for the 
two weeks we shall recite in them this quarter, and I hope 
to receive one before I shall have occasion for it again. 
This is the last quarter in which we recite in the languages. 
The next year we shall be confined to mathematics, natural 
philosophy and metaphysics. We shall finish Locke on 
the Understanding before the end of this year, and begin 
on Reid on the Mind. Our progress here is very slow, but 
we have so many things to attend to at once, that it can- 
not well be otherwise. 

affirm; and in this case it makes the task much easier. It so happens that what- 
ever the question may be, I must support it." To his mother. May 15, 1786. Ms. 
Adams' Diary while at Harvard College is summarized in Henry Adams, Historical 
Essays, 80. 

1 Samuel Williams (1743-1817), Hollis professor of mathematics and natural 
philosophy in Harvard College, 1 780-1 788. 

" William Jacob 's Gravesande's Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy, 
translated by John Theophilus Desaguliers, London. 



1786] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



23 



I received a few days since your favor of March 19th, 
and at the same time, from my sister, Colonel Humphreys' 
poem,^ which I think superior to the former. Among its 
beauties is a very happy imitation of a famous passage in 
Virgil, ^n. 6. 847, etc. It is in the 30th page : ^ 

Let other climes of other produce boast, etc. 

I think it is, as Boileau says of himself, "meme, en imitant, 
toujours original." America appears to hasten towards 
perfection in the fine arts, and any country would boast of 
a Belknap as an historian, a Dwight as a poet, and a West 
as a painter. There are in this University, one or two 
students, (now Senior Sophisters,) who promise fair to 
become very good poets. One of them, by the name of 
Fowle,^ was appointed a few days since to deliver a vale- 
dictory poem on the 21st of June, and it is said, has an- 
other assigned him as a part at Commencement. There is 
among the governors of the college one, who for genius and 
learning, would make a figure in any part of Europe. I 
mean the Librarian, Mr. Winthrop.^ He has lately dis- 
covered a method of trajecting an angle, which has so long 
been attempted in vain. Mr. Sewall ^ too, the former 
Hebrew Professor, is now producing his talents. He was 
obliged to resign, because it was said he was addicted to 
drinking. He most sacredly declared, at the time, that 
the accusation was false. It has been said as an argument 
to prove he was subject to the vice that his mental facul- 
ties were impaired. To show that this was not the fact, he 

^ A Poem on the Happiness of America. 

* Line 569 et seq. ^ Robert Fowle (1766-1847). 

^ James Winthrop (1752-1821), who served as librarian of the College 1772- 
1787, and also had repute as a jurist. 

^ Stephen Sewall (1734-1804). In 1764 he became the first Hancock professor 
of Hebrew in Harvard, and held that position until 1785. 



24 THE WRITINGS OF [1786 

has undertaken to translate Young's Night Thoughts Into 
Latin verse. The first night Is to be published soon. The 
work may be considered as a curiosity, and I shall send one 
as soon as they are printed.^ 

June 14th. I have been so busy, since the date of the 
former part of this letter, that I have not been able to 
finish it. I have taken] in writing extracts of all I remem- 
ber of the lectures upon natural philosophy. The course 
finished last Saturday, and I have now the disposal of my 
time, much more than I had before. The performances at 
Commencement are distributed, and are more numerous 
than they ever have been before. It Is a doubt at present 
whether this is only a mark of favor to the class that Is 
about to graduate, because it Is said to be one of the best 
classes taken collectively, for genius, and learning, that has 
ever gone through College ; or whether It is the Intention 
of the government for the future to increase the number 
of good parts, as they are called. Hitherto about two 
thirds of each class have had syllogistic disputes to perform 
at Commencement, and as they are never attended to, they 
are held in detestation by the scholars, and everyone thinks 
It a reflection upon his character as a genius and a student 
to have a syllogistic ; this opinion Is the firmer, because 
the best scholars almost always have other parts. There 
are many disadvantages derived from these syllogisms, and 
I know only of one benefit, which is this. Many scholars 
would go through college without studying at all, but would 
Idle away all their time, who merely from the horrors of 
syllogisms begin to study, acquire a fondness for it, and 
make a very pretty figure in college ; and It is not uncom- 

1 Node cogita, Auctore, anglice scripta. Printed in Charlestovvn [Caroloppidi], 
17S6. Sewall's Mss. in Harvard University bear witness to his learning and in- 
dustry. 



I7S6] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 25 

mon to see young fellows, the most idle in a class the two 
first years, have the reputation of great students, and good 
scholars the two latter. 

The next Commencement there will be delivered two 
English poems, two English orations, two Latin orations, a 
Greek dialogue, three forensic disputes, and an English 
dialogue between four. Thompson, a young gentleman 
from Newbury, has one of the English orations. He is 
generally supposed to be the most distinguished character in 
College. It is said by his classmates that he will outshine 
Harry Otis, who will deliver at the same time an oration 
upon taking his second degree; but it is now a doubt 
whether Thompson will appear, as he is very unwell. He 
has injured his health by hard study, and it is feared he has 
a slow fever.^ ■; 

The bridge at Charlestown is very nearly completed. 
Next Saturday being the 17th of June, there is to be a long 
procession over the bridge, and an entertainment for six 
hundred persons provided on Bunkers Hill.- I know of no 
news, as I am here quite retired. It is now eight weeks 
since this quarter began. Near as we are to Boston, I 
have been there only once in that time. A person who 
wishes to make any figure as a scholar at this University, 
must not spend much time either In visiting or in being visited. 

I have one more request to add to those I have already 
made. It is for Blair's Lectures ^ in octavo, so that they 
may be in the same form with the sermons, and because an 
octavo is much more convenient than a quarto. Your 
dutiful son. 

^ The prophecy was in part fulfilled, for Thomas W. Thompson (1766-1821) 
represented New Hampshire in both branches of the national legislature. 
^ See Massachusetts Centinel, June 21, 1786. 
* Lectures on Rhetoric, first published in 1783. 



26 THE WRITINGS OF [1786 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Cambridge, August 30th, 1786. 
Dear Sir : 

I received a few days agone your favor of June 2nd. 
You mention an affair, concerning which I had determined 
to write in the beginning of this quarter. I have thought 
much of an office in which to study the law. Should you 
return home next spring and be yourself at leisure to instruct 
me, I should certainly prefer that to studying anywhere 
else. But if you are still detained in Europe, I should 
wish to live in some place where there might be society 
sufficient for relaxation at times, but not enough to en- 
courage dissipation. Boston I should for several reasons 
wish to avoid. The principal ones are that it is unfavor- 
able to study, and that it would be almost doubly expensive. 
Mr. Parsons^of Newbury, has been mentioned, and I should 
be very glad to study with him. However it is not per- 
haps a matter of much consequence whose office I am in, 
if my time is well spent in it. I look forward with mingled 
pain and pleasure to the time when I shall finish the col- 
legiate term. I have made it my endeavor to be intimate 
only with the best characters in my class, and there are 
several with whom I enjoy many social half hours. As 
our pursuits are confined here merely to literature, it is 
necessary to be a very close student in order to acquire a 
respectable character. Out of an hundred and forty stu- 
dents that are here, there is undoubtedly every grade, from 
the most amiable disposition to the worst, from the smallest 
genius to the greatest, and from the complete ignoramus to 
the youth of learning. There are some who do not study 

1 Theophilus Parsons (1750-1813). See Memoir of Theophilus Parsons, by his 
son, Boston, 1S61. 



1786] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 27 

twelve hours in the course of a twelvemonth, and some who 
study as much almost every day, and it always happens 
that their reputation is in an exact ratio to the attention 
they pay to studying. The good scholar is esteemed, even 
by the idle; but the bad one is despised as much by those 
who are like him, as he is by the judicious. This is the 
common course, but in these peaceful mansions there is 
the same spirit of intrigue and party, and as much inclina- 
tion to cabal, as may be discovered at courts. It has not 
the same opportunities to show itself, and remains for the 
most part concealed; but there are certain circumstances 
and situations in which it breaks forth with great vehemence. 
This has lately been the case with my class. It is cus- 
tomary early in the first quarter of the senior year for each 
class to meet and choose by ballot one of its members to 
deliver a valedictory oration on the ensuing 21st of June, 
and four others to collect the theses, which are published 
by the class when they take their degrees. [We] have 
lately gone through this business. There were different 
parties for three persons as orator, and there was a great 
deal of intriguing carried on. One only could be successful, 
and Little,'^ of Newburyport, was finally chosen, a person, 
who to an excellent genius, unites an amiable disposition, 
and an unblemished moral character. The class did me 
the honor to choose me among the theses collectors, and for 
the mathematical part.^ Little did I think, when you gave 
me those lessons at Auteuil, which you call our suppers, 
that they would be productive of this effect.^ It is a la- 

1 Moses Little (1766-1811). 

* "I am the more pleased to learn that you are to collect the mathematical 
theses, as the same part fell to my share in the year 1755." John Adams to John 
Quincy Adams, January 10, 1787. Ms. 

* The father speaks in a letter of April 2, 1786, of "our Greek breakfasts at the 
Hague, and our Euclid suppers at Auteuil." Ms. 



28 THE WRITINGS OF [1786 

borious task, and will confine my studies for the ensuing 
year much more to the mathematics than I should have 
done if I had been left to my own disposal. . . . 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

Cambridge, December 30, 1786. 

As for public affairs I have a great aversion even to 
thinking of them ; and near as we are to Boston, I should 
know nothing concerning them, if riots, insurrections, and 
anarchy were not at this time the only topics of conversa- 
tion. The people in four or five counties of this State are 
distracted, and several hundreds of men have repeatedly 
taken arms, and prevented the sitting of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas. In Worcester, Berkshire, and Hampshire, the 
people in general are said to be discontented, and to com- 
plain of taxation, of the Court of Common Pleas, of the 
salaries of public officers, and of debts, public and private. 
All these are, they think, intolerable grievances, and they 
wish to abolish them. In the other counties, however, 
the people are quiet, and in general firmly attached to their 
constitution. Among the rioters that have appeared several 
times in opposition to the courts of justice, there has not 
been one man of any reputation in the State ; and there 
have been consequently a number of leaders. Three of 
them have lately been taken, and it is probable the others 
will soon share the same fate. The insurrections are not 
immediately dangerous, but our government has not suffi- 
cient vigor and energy to suppress them at once. There 
has appeared in the councils a degree of timidity and irreso- 
lution, which does no honor to the executive power of a 
commonwealth. It is said to have arisen chiefly from the 



1787] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 29 

second citizen in the State, who is now distinguished by the 
Uidicrous nick-name of the Old Lady} I am, however, in 
hopes that in two or three months the public tranquillity 
will be completely restored. I suspect that the present 
form of government will not continue long, for while the 
idle and extravagant, and consequently the poor, complain 
of its being oppressive, the men of property and considera- 
tion think the constitution gives too much liberty to the 
unprincipled citizen, to the prejudice of the honest and 
industrious. The opinion that a pure democracy appears 
to much greater advantage in speculation than when re- 
duced to practice gains ground, and bids fair for popularity. 
I feared that by having received so large a share of my 
education in Europe, my attachment to a republican gov- 
ernment would not be sufficient for pleasing my country- 
men ; but I find on the contrary that I am the best 
republican here, and with my classmates, if I ever have 
any disputes on the subject, I am always obliged to defend 
that side of the question. . . . 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Braintree, June 30th, 1787. 
Dear Sir : 

I am at length released from the multiplicity of business 
which has employed so much of my time for the last eigh- 
teen months. During that period I had scarcely a leisure 
moment, and was forced to a degree of application which has 
been injurious to my health. But as I am left at present 
free from every employment, I shall have time to recruit, 
and I shall also be able to give more frequent testimonies 
of the attachment to my friends in Europe, who perhaps 

1 Thomas Gushing (1725-1788), lieutenant-governor of the State. 



30 



THE WRITINGS OF [1787 



have just grounds to complain of my neglecting to write, 
notwithstanding all that I have offered for my justifica- 
tion. On the 20th of the present month I concluded my 
collegiate course and returned here, as the Senior class are 
always dismissed four weeks before Commencement. At 
an exhibition which took place at the beginning of April, I 
delivered the inclosed piece upon the profession of the law. 
Two of my classmates performed at the same time, one of 
which spoke upon physic and the other upon divinity.^ 
The comparative utility of these professions was the topic, 
and the performance was honored with the approbation of 
the audience. It may savour perhaps of vanity in me to 
mention this circumstance, and I should have said nothing 
of it was it not from the hope that it would afford satis- 
faction to the best of parents. I have allotted to me for 
Commencement an English oration, upon the importance 
and necessity of public faith to the well-being of a com- 
munity. The subject is noble and of the greatest conse- 
quence. It deserves a more able defender, and indeed 
requires it; for our public faith at present is in a sad con- 
dition. I am led unaware into political ground, and now I 
am there I must indulge myself. 

Mr. Hancock was again elected governor this year, and 
out of 18,000 votes he had more than 13,000. This plainly 
shows that the people in general are displeased with some 
part of Mr. Bowdoin's conduct; but it is the caprice of an 
ungrateful populace, for which it must ever be impossible 
to account. Mr. Hancock is very much involved in debt, 
if common report be true. It is even confidently asserted 
that his present estate would not by any means do justice 

1 This paper is found with the letter. It is entitled "A Conference upon the 
comparative Utility of Law, Physic and Divinity," and the other two speakers 
were Moses Little and Nathaniel Freeman. The paper was "spoken" on April lo. 



1787] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 31 

to his creditors. It is therefore concluded that he would 
favor tender acts, paper currencies, and all those measures 
which would give the sanction of the law to private fraud 
and villany. It was supposed that a Senate and an House 
of Representatives would be chosen, perfectly willing to 
abolish all contracts public and private, ready in short to 
redress the people's grievances, that is, to gratify their 
passions and justify their crimes. But these fears were 
not entirely well grounded. There are indeed several Sena- 
tors and many representatives who would stick at nothing. 
A Willard,^ a Drury,- a Whitney,^ and many others who 
have openly espoused the cause of treason and rebellion, 
are now among the legislators of the country. Intestinayji 
aliquam quotidie perniciem reipuhlicae molientes. There is 
however in both branches of the legislature a majority of 
well-meaning men, who will support the dignity of the 
government, and who will not prostitute the honor of their 
country. A motion was made a few days since that a 
committee should be appointed to examine the merits of a 
paper currency, and to report upon the expediency of an 
emission at present. But there was a majority of more 
than fifty, even against the committing it. It has been 
resolved that the Court should move out of the town of 
Boston, and the committee have finally recommended Con- 
cord as the most proper place to which it may be removed. 
The people in the country are very earnest in this point, 
and as usual without knowing why. The salaries of all 
civil officers, which are now too small, will infallibly be 
reduced still lower. Mr. Hancock, who has a peculiar tal- 
ent of pleasing the multitude, has compounded this mat- 

1 Two of the name of Willard were in the new House, Dr. Samuel, of Uxbridge, 
and Jacob, of Ashburnham. 

2 Luke Drury, of Grafton. » Josiah Whitney, of Harvard. 



32 THE WRITINGS OF [1787 

ter by offering to make a present to the public of 30o£.^ 
But I consider this as a pernicious precedent, a palliative 
worse than it would have been, had the legislature cur- 
tailed the salary. For if one man gives up 30o£, another, 
fishing equally for popularity, may give more, and the chair 
of government may finally be oflFered to the lowest bidder. 
It is impossible for a free nation to subsist without parties, 
and unfortunately our parties are not yet formed. The 
democratical branch of our government is at present quite 
unrivalled, and we severely feel the want of sufficient 
strength in the other branches. The Senate indeed has 
several times within these eighteen months saved the 
Commonwealth from complete anarchy, and perhaps from 
destruction ; but its hands are tied, and the people are 
too generally disposed to abolish the Senate as an useless 
body. I have indeed great hopes that the "Defence of the 
Constitutions" will produce an alteration in their senti- 
ments. It will certainly have great weight. One printer 
in Boston is employed in printing a new edition of this 
book," and another is retailing it twice a week, in a news 
paper,^ so that I hope it will be sufficiently spread through- 
out the Commonwealth. As to the monarchical power, it 
appears to be entirely out of the question, and unless by a 
revolution it be established upon the ruin of the two others, 
it will never possess influence sufficient to hold the balance 
between them. 

There was this year no choice of a lieutenant governor 
by the people. Mr. Cushing "* and General Lincoln were 
the primary candidates. Mr. Gorham and General Heath 

' See Massachusetts Centinel, June 27, 1787. 
"^ Edmund Freeman. The book appeared in 1788. 

' The Massachusetts Gazette, beginning June 22, and running to September 7, 
1787- * Thomas Cushing and Nathaniel Gorham. 



1787] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 33 

had likewise some hundreds of votes. The House sent up 
Mr. Gushing and Mr. Gorham to the Senate, because 
General Lincoln was a military character. The Senate 
were unanimous in favor of Mr. Gushing, who will probably 
drop at the next election. Mr. Adams ^ has been much 
opposed to General Lincoln, and had sufficient influence to 
prevent his being chosen even as a councillor, because he 
is a member of the Society of Cincinnati. It is strange 
that no one dares attack this institution openly. It is 
daily acquiring strength, and will infallibly become a body 
dangerous, if not fatal to the Constitution. Immediately 
after the death of General Greene, it was asked by one of 
the State Societies that his eldest son, at the age of eighteen 
should take his seat as a member. I was perfectly astonished 
to see no notice taken of this measure by the public. By 
dropping the hereditary part of the constitution, they will 
after some time reduce themselves to a small number, and 
by admitting the sons of the most distinguished characters, 
they obtain their end, as completely as if it were professedly 
hereditary. But as they are not immediately dangerous, 
and there are so many other difficulties that engage the 
attention of the public, nothing is said, or done upon the 
subject, and they are suffered to take their own course. 2 
A free people always were and always will be ready to strain 
at a gnat and swallow a camel. ^ . . . 

1 Samuel Adams. 

2 The subject of the Cincinnati had been much discussed in 1784, and the 
general unpopularity of the institution fully developed. John Adams, then in 
Europe, wrote in severe terms of it to Lafayette (fVorks of John Adams, \'III. 
192), and he was not alone in believing the newly formed society "against the 
spirit of our governments and the genius of our people." 

' "I consider as one of the most fortunate circumstances of my life that I came 
from Europe as I did ; it has been of great and real service to me in many particu- 
lars. It has reduced my opinion of myself and of my future prospects to a nearer 
level with truth ; so that making allowances for the general exaggerations of youth, 

D 



34 THE WRITINGS OF [1787 

TO JEREMY BELKNAP 

Braintree, August 6, 1787. 
Sir, 

I received your favor of the 3d instant, and am really 
at a loss how to return you my thanks for the undeserved 
expression of politeness which it contains. With respect to 
the publication of my performance,^ I wish equally to avoid 

I do not overrate myself more than people in general are apt to do. It has enabled 
me to form an intimate friendship with a number of worthy characters of the same 
standing in life with myself; and it has been the means of turning my attention 
to several important branches of study, which otherwise I must have neglected. 
There are at the university two private societies formed upon a similar plan to 
that which you mention in one of your late letters. Of these societies friendship 
is the soul, and literary improvement the object; and consequently neither of 
them is numerous. I was received as a member of both those societies very soon 
after my admission at the university, and I am certain that the institutions are of 
great service to those who belong to them. In short I am now so firmly persuaded 
of the superior advantages of a public education, that I only regret I did not enter 
the university a year and a half sooner than I did." To his mother, August i, 1787. 
Ms. 

1 On Wednesday July 18, at the commencement exercises at the University in 
Cambridge, Adams delivered an oration " Upon the importance and necessity of 
Publick Faith to the well-being of a community." A writer in the Massachusetts 
Ceniinel, of July 21, said: "The two principal performances were the Orations by 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Freeman. The first of these certainly declaimed upon a well- 
chosen subject, in a manly, sensible and nervous style of eloquence. The public 
expectations from this gentleman, being the son of an Ambassador, the favourite 
of the officers of the college, and having enjoyed the highest advantages of Euro- 
pean instruction, were greatly inflated. The performance justified the preconceived 
partiality. He is warmly attached to the republican system of his father, and des- 
canted upon the subject of public justice with great energy. Mr. Adams's indispu- 
table superiour, in style, elegance and oratory, is the graceful Mr. Freeman. It is 
thought almost impossible for him to exceed his accomplished rival who spoke be- 
fore him — but to Freeman every thing was easy. They were both considerably 
agitated when they arose, and seemed to recover a decent confidence after the 
same interval. Freeman was not deficient in energy of diction — in mellifluousness 
he was unequalled. He had happily imitated that plain and just model of elo- 
quence which has been attended with the most flattering success in this country. 



1787] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 35 

giving any just ground for a charge of presumption or of 
obstinacy. The reason which induced me to wish that 
Harris's ^ poem might be published was that I supposed it 
might in some measure serve as a justification for me. 
But I fear, Sir, that persons of judgment and candor who 
were present at Commencement, and who would therefore 
be proper judges of the comparative merit of the perfor- 
mances on that day would be displeased to see mine alone 
in print, and would reasonably think it a breach of common 
decency in me to consent to it. This is my objection. I 
only request that you would weigh it in your own mind, 
and I will leave it to you to determine whether I ought not 
to prevent the publication. Judge me impartially, and 
without favor and I shall readily submit to your decision. 

If you should finally conclude to have it printed, I do 
not wish that anything should be said respecting the diffi- 
culty of obtaining a copy; any preface of that kind could 
at best only palliate my faults, and would only give an air 
of importance to the piece, which it docs not deserve, and 
which it could not support. Apologies of this nature never 
have any influence upon Impartial persons, and these are 
the only characters I am fearful of offending. 

To the publication of the name my objections are more 
numerous and still stronger than to the other point. In 
several collegiate performances which have heretofore 
been published the names arc omitted : indeed, I do not 
recollect that I ever saw one with the name before it. If 
the piece is said to have been delivered by one of the can- 
didates for the bachelor's degree at the last Commence- 
In short, these young gentlemen discovered those qualities that must ensure them 
eminence, and we hope for the sake of their country, they may be rivals m the 
cultivation of those talents through life." On an alleged intrigue in the distribu- 
tion of the commencement honors see Massachusetts Centind, September 15, 1787- 

'Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768-1842). 



il 



36 THE WRITINGS OF [17S7 

ment, I confess I cannot see of what Importance it can be, 
either to the university, or to the public, that the individual 
person should be named. And if my father has been so 
fortunate as to render services of importance to his country- 
men, that is certainly no reason why they should be preju- 
diced in favor of his son. 

I have, however, such an implicit confidence in your 
judgment, that I shall leave even this point to your final 
determination : and if you think these reasons sufficiently 
valid, you will be so kind as to return the oration to Mr. 
Foster, who will transmit it to me. With every sentiment 
of esteem and respect, I remain, Sir, etc. 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

Newburyport, December 23d, 1787. 
Dear Madam : 

It is a long time since I wrote you last, but I am per- 
fectly weary of making apologies. I have no doubt but 
my friends will forgive me, when they recollect the causes 
which have prevented me from informing them frequently 
of those trivial events, which the partiality of friendship 
alone can render interesting. When I was last in Boston 
which was about two months ago, I wrote a few hasty 
lines to my father, intending to write more largely soon after 
my return to this place. I have delayed fulfilling my 
Intentions from time to time, either from the want of an 
opportunity, or from the multiplicity of my employments, 
and even now, I know not whether this letter will go within 
these three months. 

In the beginning of September I came to this town, and 
began the study of the law with Mr. Parsons. I could 
not possibly have an instructor more agreeable than this 



17S7] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 37 

gentleman. His talents are great, his application has been 
indefatigable, and his professional knowledge is surpassed 
by no gentleman in the Commonwealth. The study itself 
is far from being so destitute of entertainment as I had 
been led to expect.^ I have read three or four authors with 
pleasure as well as improvement, and the imaginary terrors 
of tediousness and disgust, have disappeared, upon the 
first approach. But in their stead other fears have arisen 
which create more anxiety in my mind, and which will 
increase rather than subside. The popular odium which 
has been excited against the practitioner in this Common- 
wealth prevails to so great a degree, that the most innocent 
and irreproachable life cannot guard a lawyer against the 
hatred of his fellow citizens. The very despicable writ- 
ings of Honestus ^ were just calculated to kindle a flame 
which will subsist long after they are forgotten. The author 
after being hoisted by this weak instrument into the Senate 
has already returned to his native insignificancy, and under 
the new adopted signature of Candidus, defends a good 
cause without ability and without success. But the poison 
has been so extensively communicated, that its infection 
will not easily be stopped. A thousand lies in addition to 
those published in the papers have been spread all over 
the country, to prejudice the people against the order, as 
it has invidiously been called ; and as a free people will 
not descend to disguise their sentiments, the gentlemen of 
the profession have been treated with contemptuous neg- 
lect, and with insulting abuse. But notwithstanding all 

' The diary of Adams while at Newburyport, and covering the period from August 
li 9, 1787,10 September i8, 17S9, was printed by Charles Francis Adams in 2 Mass. 
Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XVI. 291, and in separate form, Life in a New England 
Tozvn: 1787, 1788. Boston, 1903. 

2 Benjamin Austin (1752-1820), whose tract Observations on the pernicious Prac- 
tice of the Law appeared in 1786. 



38 THE WRITINGS OF I1787 

this the profession is increasing rapidly in numbers, and 
the little business to be done is divided into so many shares, 
that they are in danger of starving one another. When I 
consider these disadvantages, which are in a degree peculiar 
to the present time, and those which at all times subsist; 
when I reflect that good abilities, great application, and a 
favorable fortune are requisite to acquire that eminence in 
the profession which can insure a decent subsistence, I 
confess I am sometimes almost discouraged, and ready to 
wish I had engaged in some other line of life. But I am 
determined not to despond. With industry and frugality, 
with patience and perseverance, it will be very hard if I 
cannot go through the world with honor. I am most 
resolutely determined not to spend my days in a dull tenor 
of insipidity. I never shall be enough of a stoic to raise 
myself beyond the reach of fortune. But I hope I shall 
have so much resolution as shall enable me to receive pros- 
perity without growing giddy and extravagant, or adver- 
sity without falling into despair. 

I board at a Mrs. Leathers's,^ a good old woman, who 
even an hundred years ago would have stood in no danger 
of being hanged for witchcraft. She is however civil and 
obliging, and what is very much in her favor, uncommonly 
silent; so that if I am deprived of the charms, I am also 
free from the impertinence of conversation. There is one 
boarder beside myself — a Dr. Kilham,- (I hope the name 
will not scare you) one of the representatives from this 
town, a very worthy man, and a man of sense and learning. 
Was it not for him I should be at my lodgings as solitary 
as an hermit. There is a very agreeable society in the town, 
though I seldom go into company. 

1 She lived on State Street, near Parsons' office. 

2 Daniel Kilham. 



1787] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 39 

I passed two or three days at Haverhill, about a month 
ago, and had the pleasure of finding Air. Thaxter.^ From 
the severest censurer of every trifling attentions between 
lovers, he became as fond a shepherd as ever was celebrated 
in the annals of Arcadia, He expects some peculiar ani- 
madversions from you, for his desertion of principles, which 
he formerly boasted were so deeply rooted in his mind. 
But it is the old story of Benedick, The absurdity is not 
in abandoning a vain, ineffectual resolution, but it is in 
pretending to adopt a resolution, which every day may be 
rendered futile, 

I have frequently been prevented from expatiating in 
my letters upon political topics by the sterility of the 
subject; an uncommon fertility now produces the same 
effect, I can only say in general terms that parties run 
very high, and that we are most probably at the eve of a 
revolution. Whether it will be effected in silence, and 
without a struggle, or whether it will be carried at the 
point of the sword, is yet a question. The newspapers will 
show you how much the public is engaged in the discus- 
sion of the new continental form of government, which I 
fear will be adopted. 

From the remainder of the family you will probably 
hear, by the same opportunity that is to convey this. When 
I last heard from my brothers they were well. Your ever 
affectionate son, 

1 John Thaxter, Jr. (1755-1791). See Works of John Adams, index. 



40 THE WRITINGS OF [1789 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Newburyport, June 28th, 1789. 
Dear Sir: 

• •••••• 

Three months have elapsed since my return to this town. 
My health has been restored beyond my expectations, and 
I have been able without injuring it, to devote a larger 
portion of my time to study than I hoped to when I left 
Braintree. Lord Coke, Saunders, Hale and Blackstone 
have contributed to add to my small stock of professional 
knowledge, and I have made some researches into the 
doctrine of pleading. My greatest apprehensions at present 
are with respect to the practical part of the profession. 
The skill to apply general knowledge to particular cases is 
no less important than the knowledge itself; and a new 
piece of mechanism will often perform its operations with 
great irregularity, however well it may be constructed. I 
remain still in a state of irresolution and suspense with 
respect to the place of my future residence. I have con- 
sulted Mr. Parsons upon the subject : he said he could 
not advise me so well at present, as he might after the 
federal judiciary system shall be established, because he 
knew not what vacancies might be created by that cir- 
cumstance. He however hinted that if either himself or 
Mr. Bradbury ^ should be removed he should recommend 
this place to me. I know not what his own expectations 
are ; but I have some reason to suppose he has his eye 
upon two offices, those of the district judge and Attorney 
General, either of which I believe would suit him well. 
And by his putting the supposition of his being taken off 

1 Theophilus Bradbury (1739-1803), in 1797 appointed a judge of the Massachu- 
setts Supreme Court. 



1789] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 41 

from the practice, I have conjectured that there was in his 
own mind an idea of the probability of his appointment. 
As I believe his talents are much better calculated to ad- 
minister laws than to make them, I wish he may succeed.^ 
Perhaps even an involuntary consideration of my own 
interest has some effect to give a bias to my opinion. I am 
the more free to make this confession, because I suppose 
the appointments are all adjusted ere this and I shall not 
therefore appear in the humiliating light of a solicitor, 
which I wish ever to avoid, and in which I am well per- 
suaded I should be unsuccessful were I now to assume it. 

As our newspapers are probably transmitted to you with 
regularity, I can give you very little news in the public 
line. The very great majority of votes by which Mr. 
H[ancock] was reelected, and the influence which was 
successfully exerted for Mr. A[dams], appeared somewhat 
singular after the event of all the contests relating to the 
federal elections.^ There have been a variety of subordi- 
nate political manoeuvres in the choice of representatives 
of the different towns. Those in Boston you have un- 
doubtedly been informed of. There was in this town a 
faint struggle for a change in the representation, but the 
old members came in with a respectable majority. 

Our General Court, after sitting about a month, and 
busying themselves upon the subject of finance just suffi- 

1 Gore, who was about to receive the office of United States district attorney for 
Massachusetts, thus passes upon the candidates for district judge : " [James] Sullivan 
IS well qualified in point of capacity, but the world says that his heart is not true. 
Parsons in a superior degree is qualified as a lawyer, but as a man he possesses not 
one qualification. [Francis] Dana is talked of, and were his health not very un- 
certain, he would undoubtedly be a fit man. [William] Tudor and [W.] Wetmore are 
likewise candidates. . . . They are both honest men, and the latter a painstaking 
lawyer, as the phrase is." Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 367. 

^ Samuel Adams took the oath as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, May 
27, 1789. 



42 



THE WRITINGS OF [1789 



cient to refer it over to the next session, have adjourned to 
some time in January, when it will be too late in the po- 
litical year to adopt any decisive measures. There has 
been a scheme on foot for sinking our State debt by means 
of a lottery. From Mr. Parsons's conversation I have 
supposed that the plan originated with him, and in his 
speculative principles he thinks it would reconcile the 
claims of public justice with the interests of an impotent i 
debtor. The proposal was to redeem £40,000 of the debt | 
by refunding only £10,000 in specie to the adventurers. 
Besides the impropriety of encouraging a gambling dis- | 
position among the people, I confess the plan appears to 
me equally inconsistent with the dignity of a sovereign 
state and with the integrity of an honest debtor. For 
whatever expedients may be used to conceal or disguise 
the iniquity of the transaction, nothing can be more clear 
than that where a debt of £40,000 is paid with 10,000 the 
creditor must be defrauded. The bill passed in the House 
by a majority of 73 to 52, but was non-concurred by the 
Senate.^ . . . 

The proceedings of Congress have almost entirely super- 
seded all other subjects of political speculation. The 
revenue bill has hitherto chiefly engaged the public atten- 
tion. The original duty upon molasses exceedingly alarmed 
many of our West India merchants, and whatever may be 
said of discarding all local and personal considerations, they 

1 "Till the intention of Congress is known relative to the assumption of funds, 
the state cannot, with propriety, make any arrangement for the payment of their 
debts. If the national government could assume the different State debts, the 
consequence I should presume would be greatly beneficial to America. But if 
attempted, this must be done speedily. That it will tend to a consolidation of the 
union will presently be foreseen and therefore objected to by State demagogues." 
Gore to King, June 7, 1789. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 362. Hamil- 
ton did not become Secretary of the Treasury until September of this year 



1789] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 43 

have not, I believe, been so much pleased with any act of 
the President of the Senate, as his turning the vote for 
reducing the duty to three cents. ^ This observation how- 
ever only applies to a few, for I do not know that the cir- 
cumstance is generally known. The judiciary bill has not 
yet been published here. I had a transient sight of a copy, 
which I believe Mr. Dalton sent. Mr. Parsons thinks six 
judges will not be enough, and objects to the joining the 
district judge to the other two in the circuits, because it 
gives him a casting voice in affirming his own decisions. 
I am, etc.^ 

ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON BY THE 
CITIZENS OF NEWBURYP0RT3 

November, 1789. 
When by the unanimous suffrages of your countrymen you 
were called to preside at her councils, the citizens of the town of 
Newbury Port participated in the general joy arising from a pleas- 
ing anticipation of an administration conducted by one to whose 

^ This was an error, as John Adams pointed out in his reply. 

^ The United States Circuit Courts remained in existence until January I, 1912, 
being abohshed by the act of March 3, 191 1. 

' " I was not one of the choir who welcomed the President to New England's shore, 
upon his arrival here by land. I was, however, in the procession which was formed 
here to receive him in humble imitation of the Capital. And when he left us, I was 
one of the respectable citizens (as our newspapers term them) who escorted him on 
horse-back to the lines of New Hampshire. ... I had the honor of paying my 
respects to the President upon his arrival in this town, and he did me the honor to 
recollect that he had seen me a short time before, at New York. I had the honor 
of spending part of the evening in his presence at Mr. Jackson's. I had the honor 
of breakfasting in the same room with him the next morning at Mr. Dalton's. I 
had the honor of writing the billet which the major general of the county sent him 
to inform him of the military arrangements he had made for his reception. And 
I had the honor of draughting an address, which with many alterations and addi- 
tions (commonly called amendments) was presented to him by the town of New- 
buryport." — To Abigail Adams, December 5, 1789. Ms. 



44 THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

exertions they felt themselves so much indebted for their in- 
estimable freedom. 

At the present moment they indulge themselves in sentiments 
in joy resulting from principles perhaps less elevated, but equally 
dear to their hearts; from the gratification of their affection in 
beholding personally among them, the friend, the benefactor, the 
father of his country. 

They cannot hope, Sir, to exhibit any peculiar marks of attach- 
ment to your person, since in expressing the feelings of the warmest 
and sincerest gratitude, they could only re-echo the sentiments which 
are impressed upon the hearts of all their fellow citizens as deeply 
as upon their own. But in justice to themselves, they think they 
are authorized to assure you, that in no part of the United States 
are those sentiments of gratitude and affection more cordial and 
sincere, than in the town which at this time is honored by your 
presence. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Newburyport, March 19, 1790. 
Dear Sir : 

I have to acknowledge the receipt of two letters from 

you, of the 9th and of the 19th of last month, the former 

of which I received, about three weeks ago, while I was at 

Boston, attending upon the session of our Supreme Court, 

and the latter came to hand but two days since. I hope I 

shall ever feel suitably grateful for the tender solicitude 

which you express with respect to my future prospects, 

and I trust I shall always be sufficiently sensible of the 

weight and importance of your advice and directions to 

regulate my conduct. The principal subject of both your 

letters has been long a matter of contemplation to my own 

mind. I have been for some months expecting the judicial 

appointments, upon the presumption that some vacancies 

might be made, which would open a way for making a more 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 45 

advantageous settlement in some part of the Commonwealth 
than there could be while those gentlemen, who were best 
qualified for seats upon the bench, were still at the Bar. 
But the appointments are now made, and have not pro- 
duced the smallest alteration in the prospects of a young 
candidate for practice, Mr. Paine, the late Attorney 
General, never did any other business than that of the 
Commonwealth,^ though Mr. Sullivan, to the same office, 
unites the greatest quantity of civil business of any gentle- 
man at the Bar.2 Mr. Cushing ^ was not even a practitioner, 
so that notwithstanding the disposal of those three im- 
portant offices, the state of practice remains almost wholly 
as it was before. 

It has become necessary, however, for me to determine 
speedily upon the spot of my future residence. And in 
reflecting upon the subject, my mind has chiefly hesitated 
between this town, Boston and Braintree. It was at one 
period expected that Mr. Bradbury,^ who lives at New- 
buryport, would supply the place upon the bench which 
was vacated by the removal of Judge Sewall.^ Had this 
circumstance taken place, I should have been strongly in- 
clined to make an experiment in this place, where a resi- 
dence of three years has already made me better known 
than I should be in any other situation, and where an agree- 
able circle of acquaintance would render the station pecu- 
liarly pleasing, so far as respects the intercourse of society. 

1 Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814) was appointed Attorney-General of Massachu- 
setts in 1780, and remained in that office until 1790, when he became a judge of 
the Supreme Court. 

2 James Sullivan was Attorney-General of Massachusetts from 1790 to 1807, 
when he was elected governor. 

3 Nathan Cushing. * Theophilus Bradbury. 

5 David Sewall, of York, who was appointed, in 1789, United States Judge of 
the district of Maine. 



46 THE WRITINGS OF I1790 

But with the small proportion of business which is done 
in the county of Essex, it must be a folly to expect encourage- 
ment for a youth in a town, where besides Mr. Parsons and 
Mr. Bradbury there are two other gentlemen of the pro- 
fession. As I could live at less expense at Braintree, than 
in Boston, and perhaps should have less avocations from 
my studies, I should without hesitation go there, and reside 
at least for two or three years ; but my cousin, Mr. Cranch,^ 
will be there, and by opening offices in the same town we 
could only divide the small pittance which either of us 
singly might obtain. I could not in that case board in his 
father's family. There is not another family in the town 
(at least in that part of the town) where I could board 
with any convenience, and to live alone in one of your 
houses, besides the unpleasant circumstances of a life so 
solitary, would I think be quite as expensive as to live in 
Boston, especially when it is considered that it would be 
necessary for me to be as much as one-third part of my 
time in that town to attend upon the sessions of the several 
judicial courts. Boston therefore remains alone, upon 
which I am by a kind of necessity constrained to fix my 
choice. I cannot say I am pleased with the manners of 
the town, and I trust the opportunities and temptations 
to dissipation, which I shall probably find there, have no 
influence upon my determination, unless to increase the 
reluctance with which I make it, I have consulted with 
Dr. Tufts,- with Judge Dana, and with Dr. Welsh ^ upon 
the subject, and they all agree in the opinion that I can do 
no better than to fix upon Boston, and as you have in one 
of your last letters expressed your approbation of the 
measure, there remains little doubt in my mind, but that 

1 William Cranch, later chief justice of the Circuit Court, Washington, D.C. 

2 Cotton Tufts (1731-1815). 3 Thomas Welsh (1752-1831). 



1790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 47 

I shall put it into execution. The prospect, it is true, is 
not encouraging ; but if a resolute determination to make 
my own way, in conjunction with the small talents which 
have been allotted to me, are sufficient to procure me even 
a moderate degree of success, I hope I shall not be much 
longer a burden to the kindest and most generous of parents. 

With respect to the article of board, it would not I imagine 
be easy to find a family who would resign the front room 
and chamber, as there is but one of each in the house, and 
unless some advantage could be derived from the circum- 
stance of living and keeping an office in the same house, I 
think it would be preferable to do otherwise. If a tenant 
can be found, who will upon consideration of a suitable 
abatement of the rent resign the front room in your house, 
Dr. Tufts has promised to secure it to me for an office. 
And Dr. Welsh has made me an offer to board me, and 
let me have a chamber in a house to which he expects to 
remove, before I shall have occasion to go into Boston. I 
did not agree with him upon any settled terms, but I pre- 
sume he will not demand more than three dollars by the 
week. In the town I have always given two and one half. 

Should my present expectations and intentions be con- 
firmed I shall probably get settled in Boston some time in 
August,^ and I shall request your permission to remove 
thither your law library, which is now at Braintree. The 
advantage of having such a collection of books around me, 
will give me perhaps some opportunities, which few of the 
young gentlemen of the profession have possessed, and they 
will at least enable me to employ to some purpose a great 
portion of time which must otherwise lay heavy upon my 
hands. 

^ In the second week of August he removed to Boston and opened an office in 
a house on Court Street, belonging to John Adams. 



48 THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

I believe I have said quite enough upon a subject of so 
little consequence as myself. I wish my information in the 
political line were such as would enable me to supply you 
with any interesting communications. The public mind 
here seems chiefly agitated by the late discussions relative 
to discrimination and to the assumption of the debts. The 
decision upon the former of these subjects, meets with the 
approbation of almost all the persons with whom I have i 
had opportunities of conversing. But I am apprehensive 
that unless the consent of the States in their respective 1 
legislatures is requested by Congress to the assumption, 
that measure will be extremely unpopular, even in this 
Commonwealth, burthened as it is with one of the heaviest 
debts in the union. And if that consent should be re- 
quired, I am informed by those who are more connected 
with political affairs, that even our General Court will 
never grant it, though in their late session they have not 
made provision for the payment of a quarter part of the 
interest upon their debt. New Hampshire, whose debt is 
comparatively trifling will be still more opposed to this 
measure. This opposition is not confined to the party 
who were termed anti-federalists. Some of the most 
strenuous advocates for the Constitution are alarmed at 
the prospects of a consolidation of the States and of the 
dissolution of the particular governments. And they dread 
to see an article so weighty and important as the State debts 
taken from one scale and added to the other. 

The internal politics of the State are in a state of tran- 
quility, very unusual at this season. The opposers of the 
Governor, discouraged I presume by the ill success which 
they have always experienced, seem determined to leave 
him in quiet possession. He has been confined as usual 
all winter with the gout, and his judicial appointments 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 49 

have been the only public circumstances which have for 
some time past been the subject of animadversion. The 
appointment of Mr. Paine was rather popular. That of 
Mr. Gushing was far otherwise. The friends of the Gov- 
ernor only insist upon the disinterested magnanimity of 
nominating a man who it is said has been invariably opposed 
to his measures, while his enemies are so far from acknowl- 
edging his disinterestedness, that they censure him very 
highly for nominating to one of the most important offices 
in the State, a man totally unqualified to sustain it, merely 
to be freed from his troublesome opposition as a councillor. 
The late Chief Justice,^ revered as his character universally 
is, does not altogether escape censure for recommending so 
earnestly his cousin to an employment, to which he is 
almost universally said to be very inadequate. Your duti- 
ful son. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Newburyport, April 5th, 1790. 
Dear Sir : 

I have more than once mentioned to you the state of 
retirement from political conversation in which I live, and 
the restraints which I am endeavoring to lay upon a dis- 
position inclining perhaps with too much ardor to feel 
interested in public occurrences. But it sometimes happens 
that I am accidentally witness to conversations upon these 
subjects, from which I collect some trifling information, 
that I imagine might at least not be unentertaining to you. 
In general I have supposed that your other correspondents 
In this quarter would anticipate me, and that I should only 
employ your time in reading a relation of occurrences 

1 William Gushing, who was, in 1789, appointed to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 
E 



so THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

which would not even have with you the merit of novelty. 
But from some late letters I have been led (though perhaps 
erroneously) to imagine your correspondents here have not 
been so punctual in their communications, as they have 
been formerly, and I have supposed I might mention some 
circumstances, which though generally known here might 
not be public at New York. 

It appears to me that the hostile character of our general 
and particular governments each against the other is in- 
creasing with accelerated rapidity. The spirit which at the 
time when the Constitution was adopted, it was contended 
would always subsist of balancing one of these governments 
by the other has I think almost totally disappeared already, 
and the seeds of two contending factions appear to be 
plentifully sown. The names of Federalist and Anti- 
federalist are no longer expressive of the sentiments which 
they were so lately supposed to contain, and I expect soon 
to hear a couple of new names, which will designate the 
respective friends of the national and particular systems. 
The people are very evidently dividing into these two parties. 
What the event will be I hardly allow myself to conjecture, 

but my soul asks 
To know when two authorities are up, 
Neither supreme, how soon confusion 
May enter 'twixt the gap of both, and take 
The one by the other. 

In point of measures the government of the United States 
has undoubtedly greatly the advantage. But while they 
are strengthening their hands by assuming the debts, and 
by making provision for the support of the public credit, 
the partisans of our State government are continually upon 
the rack of exertion to contrive every paltry expedient to 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Si 

maintain their importance and to check the operations of 
the government, which they behold with terror. As they 
can only clamor upon subjects of importance, their active 
efforts are used in appointing a premature fast, or in oppos- 
ing the cession of a light house. In the last session of our 
General Court the light houses In this Commonwealth were 
not ceded to Congress. And the keeper of that at the 
entrance of Boston Harbor has been forbidden upon his 
peril to receive any directions or pay from the federal 
officer. But the imbecility of our government renders all 
these exertions the more ridiculous ; for while they endeavor 
to prevent the assumption of their debt, they cannot even 
provide for the payment of the Interest upon it. And they 
have never yet paid for two light houses at the entrance of 
this harbor, although they are so solicitous to retain them. 

The history of the additional amendments to the Con- 
stitution proposed by a joint committee of our two houses, 
affords further evidence of the petty arts which are used 
by the enemies to the national union to turn the tide of 
popular opinion against the national government. Mr. 
Austin, who, as I have been Informed, had the principal 
agency in that affair, never expected that any amendments 
would be seriously proposed to Congress by our Legislature ; 
and there is an Internal evidence, the report of the Com- 
mittee, that it was Intended for a declamation to the people 
rather than for amendments to the Constitution. They 
are not even pretended to be amendments, but after the 
long commonplace rhapsody upon the dangerous tendency 
of the government, when we come to the articles, we find 
them pretended to be nothing but principles for amend- 
ments. The Committee consisted of seven members, of 
whom only four were present when this report was agreed 
upon. Mr. Dana who drew it up was one of the absent, 



52 THE WRITINGS OF I1790 

and it is said afterwards declared, that he should have 
objected to the two last articles (perhaps the most impor- 
tant of the whole number), though he drafted them himself. 
The two other absent members utterly disclaimed the re- 
port, and the chairman, who did not vote, was equally 
opposed to it. Three members only agreed upon the 
point, and when they produced the paper in the Senate, 
they obtained a vote to have a certain number of copies 
printed. It was then dismissed without being suffered to 
undergo the test of an examination, and Mr. Austin, I am 
told, made no scruple to acknowledge that he had answered 
his purpose. 

Yet even when opportunities are presented, where the 
Importance of our own government might be really in- 
creased, some other little selfish interested principle steps 
in, and produces measures calculated to bring it into con- 
tempt. The appointment of N. Gushing upon the bench 
of our Supreme Gourt has certainly not tended to increase 
the confidence of the people in that important branch of 
the government. The appointment was very unpopular; 
and what perhaps in a political view rendered the measure 
the more injudicious is, that it is not his integrity but his 
abilities that are called In question. But personal ani- 
mosity against the characters who would have added 
dignity to that station, the apprehension of giving offence 
to the late Ghlef Justice, who it is said recommended his 
cousin too strongly, and the pleasure of removing a trouble- 
some councillor, concurring together, were too powerful 
even for anti-federal principles, and produced we are told a 
nomination, which could be accounted for upon no other 
motives. The only liberal and generous measure by which 
they have pursued their system has been the raising the 
salaries of our judges, and I fear they would not have sue- 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 53 

ceeded even in that, had not the personal interest of certain 
influential men, of very different principles been engaged 
and assisted to promote it. It is melancholy to observe 
how much, even in this free country, the course of public 
events depends upon the private interests and passions of 
individuals. 

But the popularity of the general government is, and for 
some time to come must continue to be disadvantageously 
affected by those very exertions to support the public 
credit, which must eventually strengthen it so effectually. 
It must suffer, however, chiefly in the seaports and among 
the merchants who find their interests affected by the 
operation of the revenue laws. In this town and still more 
in Salem, there have lately been considerable clamors 
raised by men who have been the firmest friends to the 
Constitution ; and there is now I presume before Congress 
a petition from the merchants in this town, praying relief 
from an evil, which has excited great complaints, but which 
will probably be remedied without difficulty. 

Those people among us who are perpetually upon the 
search for causes of complaint against the government, are 
cavilling at the dilatory manner with which the Congress 
proceed in their business. The decision upon the subject 
of discrimination has met with general approbation in the 
circles of company where I have heard it mentioned, and 
from the complexion of our newspapers, I have concluded 
that the public opinion, of which so much was said In the 
debates, is here much in favor of the measure. I do not 
think indeed that the public opinion can always be collected 
from newspapers, but they are never silent upon unpopular 
topics of so great importance. Mr. Madison's reputation 
has suffered from his conduct in that affair; and Judge 
Dana is the only man I have known whose character gives 



54 THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

weight to his opinions, that has adopted those of Mr. Madi- 
son. 

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury has in general 
met with great approbation. I have heard it almost uni- 
versally spoken of with great applause. Yet I am almost 
ashamed to acknowledge that I know not how justly it is 
admired, as I have never read it. This neglect has rather 
been owing to accident than to inclination, for little as I 
attend to the public prints I should certainly have noticed a 
publication of so important a nature, had I been in the way 
of seeing the Gazette of the United States which contains it. 
I am equally ignorant of the system for the establishment 
of the militia, which is as much disliked as the treasurer's 
report is esteemed. The most favorable judgment that I 
have heard passed upon it was, that however excellent it 
might be, it would never be submitted to by the people. 

I know not but that I shall incur your censure for depart- 
ing even in this instance from the line which I have pre- 
scribed to myself, and losing the lawyer in the politician ; 
and still more for the freedom with which I have expressed 
myself upon public men and measures. If I should on 
this occasion meet with your disapprobation, I shall with- 
out difficulty observe a more prudent silence upon these 
subjects in future. The opinions which I have heard ex- 
pressed are no evidence of the general opinion even through- 
out the Commonwealth, but in some instances they have 
been the opinions of men whose influence is great and exten- 
sive. But if the information contained in this letter should 
compensate in your mind for its tediousness, I shall from 
time to time continue to give you a similar supply.^ In 
the meantime I remain your affectionate son. 

1 Upon the expiration of his three years as "clerk" in the office of Mr. Parsons, 
Adams paid him in full for his tuition, the sum of one hundred pounds lawful money. 
On August 9, he took possession of his Boston office on Court Street. 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 55 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

Boston, August 14, 1790. 
My Dear Madam : 

I know not of any news. The principal topic of conver- 
sation this week has been the arrival of the Columbia from 
an expedition which has carried her round the world. The 
adventurers after having their expectations raised to the 
highest pitch, were utterly disappointed, and instead of the 
immense profits upon which they had calculated, will 
scarcely have their outsets refunded to them. This failure 
has given universal astonishment and is wholly attributed 
to the Captain,^ whose reputation now remains suspended 
between the qualifications of egregious knavery and of 
unpardonable stupidity. Mr. Barrell,^ I am informed, is 
not discouraged, but intends to make the experiment once 
more, and if he should not meet with anybody disposed to 
second him, they say he will undertake it at his single risk 
and expense. The people of the vessel have brought home 
a number of curiosities, similar to those which you have 
seen at Sir Ashton Lever's Museum. They have likewise 
brought a native of the Sandwich Islands,'^ who bound 
himself as a servant to one of the passengers. He was 
paraded up and down our streets yesterday, in the dress of 
his country, and as he speaks our language has been con- 
versed with by many gentlemen in this town. One of the 
passengers it is said has kept a very accurate journal of 
the voyage and proposes to extract from it a relation for 
publication.^ It will probably be curious ; though among 
uncivilized and barbarous nations it appears to me the 

^ John Kendrick. See Bancroft, History of the Northwest Coast, I. 185. 

"^ Joseph Barrell. 3 Described as from the island of Atowa. 

^ Probably Robert Haswell, second mate of the companion ship, Lady Washington. 



56 THE WRITINGS OF I1790 

observations of travellers must generally consist chiefly in 
a repetition of what was noticed by the first adventurer 
who discovered them. The situation of a country and 
whatever relates to inanimate matter continues the same. 
The peculiarities of the animal creation when once re- 
marked, seldom aflford any further field for information. 
It is from man that we must always derive our principal 
source of entertainment and instruction. And although 
the knowledge of the human heart may perhaps be pro- 
moted by inferences drawn from the manners and customs 
of a people newly discovered, yet the savage inhabitants 
of a petty island, cannot have many customs or opinions 
which may not be discoverable to the first man who becomes 
acquainted with them.^ . . . 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, September 21st, 1790. 
Dear Sir : 

• •••«•• 

There are not in the profession many gentlemen inhabit- 
ing this town whose characters are remarkably formidable 
from their respectability. Mr. Sullivan does more business 
I suppose than any four others put together. I shall care- 
fully remember the cautions In one of your letters respect- 
ing him ; whatever other qualities he may possess, he may 
safely be taken as a model for Industry and activity. "I 
believe," said Parson Clarke to [me] the other day "that 
man has not a particle of Indolence in his nature." He 
treats me civilly, and It is all I wish. I have derived even 
some Instruction from his private conversation as well as 

1 He was now in the family of Dr. Thomas Welsh, to whom his father wrote 
September 13, 1790, about his prospects in life. Works of John Adams, IX. 571. 



i79oI JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 57 

from his arguments at the bar, and the other day he gave 
me a caution, which made a singular impression upon my 
mind. I was sitting next to him within the bar at Concord. 
He took from his finger a ring, and pointed to me the motto 
engraved within the rim. It was "Weigh the Consequences." 
Fas est et ah hoste doceri. Perhaps the benefit of the ad- 
monition may not be lost in its influence upon my conduct 
towards the man himself. I have no desire to render my 
self personally obnoxious to him, and I trust I shall always 
disdain to court his favor. 

Mr. Tudor ^ is an ingenious, amiable, indolent man, who 
will always make a respectable figure in society, but who 
has not activity or application enough ever to arrive to 
the foremost rank of eminence in his profession. Your 
personal acquaintance with him has made his character 
better known to you than it is to me ; my opinion of him 
has been formed from the information of persons more 
conversant with him, and confirmed in some measure by 
my own observation. 

Mr. Dawes,- in addition to a similar indolence of dis- 
position, labors under the disadvantage of ill health ; he 
is supported by a very considerable weight of paternal 
influence, but his exertion has been blunted by the expec- 
tation of a large patrimonial property — he married too 
young. To avoid an early matrimonial connection, was 
one of the principles which I think I have heard you say 
was recommended to you by Mr. Grldley.^ Happiness in 
life I am fully persuaded must be derived principally form 
domestic attachments ; but a foundation must be laid before 

' William Tudor (1750-1819), who had studied law in the office of John Adams. 
A sketch of his career is in 2 Mass. Hist. Collections, VIII. 285. 
^Thomas Dawes, Jun. (1758-1825). 
^ Jeremiah Gridley. 



58 THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

the superstructure can be erected. I hope I am in no 
danger from this quarter. 

Mr. Gore is one of those men whom Cardinal Richelieu 
would have employed in public affairs,^ He is a very for- 
tunate man. In his profession he has been remarkably 
successful ; from a combination of circumstances, which a 
man of inferior abilities to those he possesses might per- 
haps have improved as well. The family connections have 
likewise been extremely serviceable to him ; and it is said 
that he has made an independent fortune by speculation in 
the public funds. I have heard it asserted that he is the 
richest lawyer in the Commonwealth. 

Mr. Amory has also been successfully engaged in specu- 
lating upon public securities, as well as Mr. Wetmore - and 
Mr. Otis.^ This employment does not appear to be very 
intimately connected with the profession. But these gentle- 
men I am told have played at that hazardous game with 
monies deposited in their hands ; and have been enabled 
by the temporary possession of property belonging to for- 
eigners, to become masters of sums to an equal amount 
before they have been called upon for payment. Amory is 
very attentive to his business, and has recommended him- 
self by the expedition with which he performs that which 
is entrusted to him. He is a student too ; but I think 
confines his researches rather too much within the circle 
of mere professional information. 

Otis appears to me to be advancing very rapidly to emi- 
nence. There is certainly no man in the town of the pro- 
fession who unites so many of those qualities which are 
calculated to attract the popular attention. He has been 
but four years at the bar, yet excepting Sullivan, I believe 

^ Christopher Gore (1758-1827). ^ William Wetmore (1749-1830). 

' Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848). 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 59 

there is no one here who has a greater proportion of busi- 
ness. But his ambition has no limits, and I strongly suspect 
that the honors of a public station have such allurements 
to his mind that he will catch with ardor at the first oppor- 
tunity to become a public man. Such an opportunity will 
perhaps be presented to him before long, and if he should 
once get entangled in the political web, it may be presumed 
he will like most others find it inextricable. These are the 
persons who share among themselves the principal business 
which is done in this town. Mr. Lowell has a son, who 
was just sworn into court at the time of his appointment, 
and to whom he has conveniently left all his unfinished 
business.^ The young gentleman has talents, activity and 
application, with a great degree of confidence in himself; 
a quality which is not amiable, but which perhaps is very 
serviceable to him, in helping him forward. His peculiar 
advantages have given him an unusual share of business, 
for a person so lately admitted. He is rather disposed to 
attribute the circumstance to his superior abilities ; and 
expresses some contempt for persons less successful than 
himself, because depending solely upon their own charac- 

L-v^ i. o • • • • 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

Boston, October 17th, 1790. 
My Dear Madam : 

• •••••• 

You will perceive by our papers that four members of 
our present delegation in Congress are reelected.- It is 

^ John Lowell (1743-1802) and his son of the same name (1769-1840). 

^ Fisher Ames, Theodore Sedgwick, Elbridge Gerry, and Benjamin Goodhue. 

Ames' election in Boston was the highest possible evidence that cou'd be produc'd 

in favor of the Government. Austin and his friends, with S. Adams, Hancock and 

Jarvis were open, warm and assiduous in favor of their candidate. Their argu- 



6o THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

not from the partly malevolence of a few contemptible 
scribblers in our newspapers that the sense of the people 
is to be collected. Two candidates had been opposed to 1 
Mr. Ames,^ with the intention to divide the votes more 
effectually, and so much industry and influence were exerted 
in their favor, that tlje result in his favor was beyond the 
most sanguine expectations of his friends, and the friends 
of the national honor. In Middlesex, indeed, the votes 
were more divided. Mr. Gorham ^ is a popular man and, 
if the public report be not fallacious, he has been indefati- 
gable for these two years past in the pursuit of this election. 
Mr. Gerry, however, has a respectable majority of votes. 

You mention in one of your letters that Mr. Short ^ Is 
commissioned to negotiate the loan. I should wish to know 
where it is expected he will obtain It. I cannot imagine 
that the attempt will be made in France, where the nation 
are so heavily laboring under the weight of their own poverty. 
Holland, I presume, will be the seat of the negotiation. 
And I should be glad to be informed what is the opinion 
of the V[ice] P[resident] with respect to its success. I 
think the value of public paper must depend considerably 
upon it. 

merits were artfully addressed to the most unguarded parts of the mind of a Boston 
Patriot. Our friend T. D[awes, Jun.] and his father [Thomas Dawes] were uncom- 
monly Industrious in the use of all their influence to attain votes for the little Judge. 
If reports are true men were hir'd and in daily pay of the former to create a favor- 
able influence in the country, and personal solicitations were used by both. Indeed 
the most ridiculous and disgraceful stories are told of Thomas ; and the event 
shewed, in a light truly mortifying, the little influence and small eflfects of dis- 
honorable means. Austin boasts that he had more votes than Dawes, and the latter 
confesses himself mortified that he was less successful than the former." Gore to 
King, October 23, 1790. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 393. 

^ Benjamin Austin and Thomas Dawes. 

2 Nathaniel Gorham ran against Gerry. 

2 William Short, whom Adams later succeeded as minister to Holland. 



1790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 6i 

Our court of Common Pleas are sitting in this town, and 
I have made my first essay in addressing a jury. I wish I 
could add that I had acquitted myself to my own satis- 
faction. I had very little time for preparation, and did not 
know the existence of the cause three hours before I spoke 
to it. From this circumstance, and from the novelty of 
the situation, added to the diffidence I have always felt of 
my talent at extemporary speechifying, I was too much 
agitated to be possessed of proper presence of mind. You 
may judge of the figure I made.^ 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, October 19, 1790. 
Dear Sir: 

• •••••• 

I have attended Town meeting. Sir, and it was upon the 
occasion of the choice of representative for the district. I 
was Indeed not a little diverted at the scene, and derived 
I believe some little instruction as well as entertainment 
from it. Three-fourths of the votes in this town were in- 
deed for Mr. Ames, and this perhaps may enable you to 

^ "Upon my return from Law Society this evening, I found my father in my room 
with a letter in his hand from you to me. He asked me to see what you had written 
concerning your downfall. Upon opening the letter I soon found what he alluded 
to, but could find no marks of any downfall. That you should have been somewhat 
confused upon your first exertion was by no means a matter of astonishment to 
any of us. The person who is unintimidated upon such occasions has not the 
common feelings of human nature. There is a pride, a respect, required by the 
auditors, which makes a little confusion rather pleasing than disagreeable. I 
think that an harangue of fifteen minutes is by no means despicable for a first essay. 
Your father was quite consoled when he heard my letter, for that written to Mamma, 
which he had previously read, had led him to suppose you had failed and suffered 
a vox faucibus haesit in reality." Charles Adams to John Quincy Adams, New York, 
October 21, 1790. Ms. "Dr. Welsh writes that your diffidence was remarked 
and your tremor observed, when you opened at the Bar." John Adams to John 
Quincy Adams, December 17, 1790. Ms. 



62 THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

form an opinion respecting the popularity of the general 
government in this State. Mr. Gerry too is reelected in 
the district of Middlesex, notwithstanding the whole per- 
sonal interest of Mr. Gorham and his friends was very 
strenuously exerted to operate a change. There was not 
even the pretence of opposing a candidate to Mr. Goodhue, 
and Mr. Sedgwick is also rechosen by a surprising ma- 
jority of votes in his district. These are premises from 
which much more accurate conclusions may be drawn than 
from the senseless bawlings of a miserable faction, and who 
are reduced to the last resource of making up in unheeded 
clamor, their total deficiency of influence and power. Z,The 
real fact is that the new government is very rapidly acquir- 
ing a broad and solid foundation of popularity. It possesses 
in my opinion the confidence of the people in this State to 
a more eminent degree than any other government upon 
earth can boast of, and it appears to me to have already 
acquired a stability as astonishing as the revolution it has 
produced in the face of our affairs. 

The effects of that revolution are already felt in a very 
high degree in this part of the country. Our commerce is 
increasing and extending ; our manufactures multiplying 
very rapidly, our agriculture flourishing ; industry has 
resumed the place which it had resigned for some time to 
idleness and luxury, and is seldom without employ. I am 
informed that the mechanics of almost every description 
in this town are at present more constantly busy than they 
have been at any period since the Revolution. The popula- 
tion of the town has increased from 14,000 to 18,000 in- 
habitants since the year 1784, and the property has aug- 
mented in a much greater proportion. Twelve hundred 
people are employed by one manufacture which has been 
only three or four years established ; that of wool cards. 



I790] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 63 

That of sail cloth, equally recent, gives bread to several 
hundred more. Paper hangings have become even an 
article of exportation from hence. Near four hundred tons 
of hemp I hear have been raised this season, within the 
state. This is a new article of cultivation, and even so 
late as the last year there were not more than thirty tons 
raised within the Commonwealth. It is found to be a 
very profitable article, and in all probability in the course 
of two or three years will cease to be imported altogether; 
and from a calculation which I have seen we might export 
it and easily undersell the Russians. There is a Colonel 
Wood in Charlestown who has raised more than three tons 
upon six acres of his land, and the produce of that small 
field will neat him 300 dollars. There is undoubtedly a 
connecting chain, the commune vinculum, between all the 
various employments of mankind as well as between the 
liberal arts and sciences. The farmer, the tradesman, the 
mechanic and the merchant, are all mutually so dependent 
upon one another for their prosperity, that I really know 
not whether most to pity the ignorance or to lament the 
absurdity of the partial politicians, who are constantly 
erecting an imaginary wall of separation between them.^ 

The health of the Governor has been better for these 
two months than for several years before. There is I think 
a probability that he will hold the chair of state for many 
years to come. It will not I presume be contested him ; 
and indeed the bitterness of parties has been tempered very 
much by the favorable alteration in the public affairs. 
The public peace and public prosperity appear in this in- 
stance to have possessed a mutual acting and reacting 
power to establish and confirm each other. . . . 

In the stagnation of our own politics the people who 

^ A reference to Thomas JefiFerson was probably intended. 



64 THE WRITINGS OF [1790 

have a fondness for the subject turn their attention to 
those of Europe, which seems to be now as much as ever 
it could be un repaire (Thorreurs. The war between Spain 
and England has been so long suspended in the balance, 
that we presume one of the scales must very soon prepon- 
derate. The last information we have has a greater appear- 
ance of hostility than any we have hitherto received. In 
France it appears to me the National Assembly in tearing 
the lace from the garb of government, will tear the coat 
itself into a thousand rags. That nation may for ought I 
know finally be free, but I am firmly persuaded it will not be 
until they have undergone another revolution. A nobility 
and a clergy, church and state levelled to the ground in one 
year's time ; rights not inconsistent with those of man, estab- 
lished by a prescription uncontrovertible, if any prescription 
can be so ; rights like these blown to the winds by the single 
breath of a triumphant democracy, are inauspicious omens 
for the erection of an equitable government of laws. By 
the politeness of the French consul ^ I have perused several 
volumes of their debates and projects for constitutions. 
There are some valuable papers among them ; but it appears 
to me that the rabble that followed on the heels of Jack Cade 
could not have devised greater absurdities than many of 
their propositions ; some of which have been adopted by the 
Assembly. I am, dear Sir, yours affectionately, 

^ Le Tombe. 

" The felicity of the public should always be rejoiced in, whatever may be our 
private afflictions or misfortunes. But you have no reason whatever to com- 
plain. Your case is the lot of every youth of your profession. The world cannot 
be forced. Time must be taken to become known in any situation : but your 
sudden appearance in a city where you had not studied, renders it still more im- 
possible that you should suddenly get in business." John Adams to John Quincy 
Adams, December 8, 1790. Ms. 



1791] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 65 

LETTERS OF PUBLICOLAi 

Mr. Russell, 

Sir, The late Revolution in France has opened an extensive 
field of speculation to the philosopher and to the politician. An 
event so astonishing and unexpected in its nature, and so im- 

^ Paine's Rights of Man, written in reply to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution 
in France (1790), appeared in London early in 1791, with a dedication to 
George Washington. A copy reached the hands of John Beckley, clerk 
of the House of Representatives, and passing through Madison was read by 
Jefferson. From him it reached the printer, with a letter expressing gratification 
that it was to be reprinted, and something said against the political heresies 
prevalent in the United States. "I was thunderstruck," he wrote to Adams later, 
"with seeing it come out at the head of the pamphlet. I hoped, however, it would 
not attract notice." The explanation was somewhat lame, and naturally the replies 
to Paine noticed Jefferson as the sponsor of the pamphlet. The pamphlet appeared 
early in May, and the press at once began to print replies, a series in Fenno 
Jefferson believed to have been written by John Adams. See Jefferson to Washing- 
ton, May 8, 1791. Another series, signed "Publicola," began to appear in the 
Columbian Centinel of Boston in June, attracting wide notice, and being generally 
copied in the journals of the other States. Eleven of these letters were printed, 
the first on June 8, and the last on July 27, and the subject as well as the treatment 
gave rise to suspicion that John Adams was the author. 

"Nobody doubts here who is the author of Publicola, any more than of Davila," 
wrote Jefferson to Madison, June 28, 1791. Nor would he accept the disavowal 
of the Boston editor, that John Adams "has no more concern in the publication 
of the writings of Publicola than the author of the Rights of Man himself." If, 
commented Jefferson, "the equivoque here were not intended, the disavowal is 
not entirely credited, because not from Mr. Adams himself, and because the stile 
and sentiments raise so strong a presumption. Besides to produce any effect he 
must disavow Davila and the Defence of the American Constitutions. A host of 
writers have risen in favor of Paine, and prove that in this quarter at least the spirit 
of republicanism is sound." Such a suspicion, when openly expressed, as it was 
in the press, directed attention to the papers, which received greater notice than 
their merits would seem to call for. They were widely copied by journals through- 
out the United States, and called out many replies, but few arguments. In Boston 
"Brutus" answered in the Columbian Centinel, and "Agricola," "A Republican," 



' Columbian Centinel, June 8, 1 79 1. 



(£ THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

portant in its consequences, naturally arrested the peculiar atten- 
tion of the whole civilized world. The friends of liberty and of 
man have seen with pleasure the temples of despotism levelled 
with the ground, and the Genius of Freedom rising suddenly in 
his collected and irresistible strength, and snapping in an instant 
all the cords with which, for centuries, he had been bound. Upon 

"The Ploughman," and "The Watchman" in the Independent Chronicle. The plane 
on which the discussion was conducted may be measured by the charge against 
Publicola of favoring monarchy and aristocracy, which formed the principal burden 
of these replies. 

Madison wrote to Jefferson, July 13, 1791 : "Beckley . . . says . . . that Publi- 
cola is probably the manufacture of his son out of materials furnished by himself 
[John Adams], and that the publication is generally as obnoxious in New England 
as it appears to be in Pennsylvania. If young Adams be capable of giving the 
dress in which Publicola presents himself, it is very probable he may have been made 
the editor of his father's doctrines. I hardly think the printer would so directly 
disavow the fact if Mr. Adams was himself the writer. There is more of method 
also in the arguments, and much less of clumsiness and heaviness in the style, than 
characterize his writings. I mentioned to you some time ago an extract from a 
piece in the Poughkeepsie paper as a sensible comment on Mr. Adams's doctrines. 
The whole has since been republished here, and is evidently from a better pen than 
any of the Anti-publicolas I have seen. In Greenleaf's paper of to-day is a 
second letter from the same quarter, which confirms the character I have given 
of the author." Writings of James Madison (Hunt), VI. 56 n. An interchange 
of letters on the subject passed between John Adams and Jefferson, but could not 
entirely do away with a feeling on either side, that the publication marked a hostile 
divergence of political beliefs and a personal participation in furthering newspaper 
criticisms. Adams held Jefferson to be partly responsible for the publication of 
Paine's pamphlet, and Jefferson believed that the publication would have proved 
harmless had not Publicola raised such an outcry against it. See Works of John 
Jdams, VIII. 504-511; Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Ford), V. 328; Writings 
of George Washington (Ford), XII. 37 n. The letters were reissued in London : 
An/Answer/to/Paine's Rights of Man. /By/John Adams, Esq./. . . London:/ 
Printed for John Stockdale,/i793. Also in Edinburgh, as " Observations on Paine's 
'Rights of Man,'" 179-. Extracts were read by Sir Archibald Macdonald, the 
King's Attorney-General, in the trial of Thomas Paine in 1792. 

Writing nearly two years later, his father said, "Poor Jay has gone through as 
fiery an ordeal as I did, when I was suspected of a blasphemous doubt of Tom 
Paine's infallibility, in consequence of Publicola's eloquence and Jefferson's rash- 
ness." To John Quincy Adams, August 25, 1795. Ms. 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS G-j 

the downfall of the arbitrary system of government in France, 
there appears to have been but one sentiment, and that senti- 
ment of exultation ; but while the friends of humanity have 
rejoiced at the emancipation of so many millions of their fellow 
creatures, they have waited with anxious expectation to see upon 
what foundations they would attempt to establish their newly- 
acquired liberty. The proceedings of their Representative As- 
sembly have been contemplated in very different points of view, 
by men of names equally illustrious, and of characters equally 
favourable to the cause of liberty. Among the publications 
which have appeared upon the subject, two pamphlets, founded 
upon very different principles, appear to have been received with 
the greatest avidity, and seem calculated to leave the deepest 
impression. The one written by Mr. Burke, which is one con- 
tinued invective upon almost all the proceedings of the National 
Assembly since the Revolution, and which passes a severe and 
indiscriminating censure upon almost all their transactions : The 
other the production of Mr. Paine, containing a defence of the 
Assembly, and approving every thing they have done, with ap- 
plause as undistinguishing as is the censure of Mr. Burke. We 
are told, that the copy from which an edition of this work was 
reprinted at Philadelphia, was furnished by the Secretary of 
State, and was accompanied by a letter, from which the follow- 
ing extract has been published in most of our newspapers. "I 
am extremely pleased to find that it is to be re-printed here, and 
that something is at length to be publicly said, against the -politi- 
cal heresies which have sprung up among us. I have no doubt 
our citizens will rally a second time round the standard of Com- 
mon Sense." 

I confess, Sir, I am somewhat at a loss to determine, what this 
very respectable gentleman means by political heresies. Does he 
consider this pamphlet of j\Ir. Paine's as the canonical book of 
political scripture ? As containing the true doctrine of popular 
infallibility, from which it would be heretical to depart in one 
single point .^ The expressions, indeed, imply more ; they seem, 



68 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

like the Arabian prophet, to call upon all true believers in the 
Islam of democracy, to draw their swords, and, in the fervour of 
their devotion, to compel all their countrymen to cry out, "There 
is but one Goddess of Liberty, and Common Sense is her prophet." 
I have always understood. Sir, that the citizens of these States 
were possessed of a full and entire freedom of opinion upon all 
subjects, civil as well as religious; they have not yet established 
any infallible criterion of orthodoxy, either in church or state: 
their principles in theory, and their habits in practice, are equally 
averse to that slavery of the mind, which adopts, without examina- 
tion, any sentiment that has the sanction of a venerable name. 
Nullius in verba jurare magistri is their favorite maxime ; and the 
only political tenet which they would stigmatize with the name 
of heresy, would be that which should attempt to impose an 
opinion upon their understandings upon the single principle of 
authority. 

I beheve, also. Sir, that the citizens of America are not at 
present disposed to rally round the standard of any man. In 
the full possession and enjoyment of all the freedom, for which 
they have gone through so arduous a conflict, they will not, for 
the poor purpose of extinguishing a few supposed poHtical heresies, 
return to the horrors of a civil contest, from which they could 
reap no possible benefit, and which would probably terminate in 
the loss of that liberty for which they have been so liberal of their 
treasure and of their blood. 

If, however, Mr. Paine is to be adopted as the holy father of 
our political faith, and this pamphlet is to be considered as his 
Papal Bull of infallible virtue, let us at least examine what it 
contains. Before we determine to join the standard, let us in- 
quire what are the articles of war to which our General requires 
our submission. It is the glorious characteristic of truth, at once 
to invite and bid defiance to investigation. If any opinions 
which have sprung up among us have really led us astray from 
the standard of truth, let us return to it, at the call of Mr. Paine, 
or of any other man who can show us our errors. But, Sir, if 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 69 

upon examination, even this testament of orthodoxy shall be 
found to contain many spurious texts, false in their principles 
and delusive in their inferences, we may be permitted, notwith- 
standing our reverence for the author, at least to expunge the 
apocryphal doctrine, and to confine our faith to the genuine 
tenets of real political inspiration. It is my intention to submit 
to the public a few observations, which have occurred to me 
upon the perusal of this pamphlet, which has so clear and valid 
a title to the public attention. But I must here observe, that I 
wish to avoid every appearance of disrespect, either to the real 
parent of this production, or to the gentleman who has stood its 
sponsor in this country. Both these gentlemen are entitled to 
the gratitude of their countrymen ; the latter still renders impor- 
tant services in a very dignified station. He is a friend to free 
inquiry upon every subject, and he will not be displeased to see 
the sentiments which he has made his own by a public adoption, 
canvassed with as much freedom as is consistent with the rever- 
ence due to his character. 

HI 

Sir, In that part of Mr. Paine's pamphlet which he has chosen 
to call the miscellaneous chapter, he observes that, "when a man 
in a long course attempts to steer his course by any thing else 
than some polar truth or principle, he is sure to be lost." I have 
sought for the polar principle to which his exertions were directed 
in this publication, and I must acknowledge I have sought in 
vain. His production is historical, political, miscellaneous, satiri- 
cal, and panegyrical. It is an encomium upon the National 
Assembly of France. It is a commentary upon the rights of 
man, inferring questionable deductions from unquestionable prin- 
ciples. It is a severe satire upon Mr. Burke and his pamphlet 
upon the English Government, upon Kings, upon Nobility, and 
Aristocracy ; it is a narrative of several occurrences, connected 
with the French Revolution, and it concludes with a kind of 

^ Columbian Centinel, June ii, 1791. 



I 



70 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

prophetical impulse, in the expectation of an ^^ European Congress 
to patronize the progress of free government, and promote the civili- 
zation of nations with each other." The object which he promised 
to himself, in this publication, is not so dubious as the principle 
on which he wrote. His intention appears evidently to be, to 
convince the people of Great Britain that they have neither 
Liberty nor a Constitution — that their only possible means to 
produce these blessings to themselves, is to "topple down head- 
long" their present government, and follow implicitly the example 
of the French. As to the right, he scruples not to say, "that 
which a whole nation chuses to do, it has a right to do." This 
proposition is a part of what Mr. Paine calls a system of prin- 
ciples in opposition to those of Mr. Burke, and it is laid down 
without any sort of qualification. It is not my intention to 
defend the principles of Mr. Burke ; truth is the only object of 
my pursuit, and I shall without hesitation refuse my assent to 
every principle inconsistent with that, whether it proceeds from 
Mr. Burke, Mr. Paine, or even from the illustrious National 
Assembly of France. This principle, that a whole nation has a 
right to do whatever it pleases, cannot in any sense whatever be 
admitted as true. The eternal and immutable laws of justice and 
of morality are paramount to all human legislation. The viola- 
tion of those laws is certainly within the power, but it is not among 
the rights of nations. The power of a nation is the collected 
power of all the individuals which compose it. The rights of a 
nation are in like manner the collected rights of its individuals ; 
and it must follow from thence, that the powers of a nation are 
more extensive than its rights, in the very same proportion with 
those of individuals. It is somewhat remarkable that, in speak- 
ing of the exercise of the particular right of forming a Constitu- 
tion, Mr. Paine himself denies to a nation that omnipotence which 
he had before so liberally bestowed. For this same nation, which 
has a right to do whatever it pleases, has no right to establish a 
Government in hereditary succession. It is of infinite consequence, 
that the distinction between power and right should be fully 



I79IJ 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 7i 



acknowledged, and admitted as one of the fundamental principles 
of Legislators. A whole nation, such as France, England, or 
America, can act only by representation ; and the acts of the rep- 
resentative body must be considered as the acts of the nation. 
We must go farther, and say, that the acts of the majority in the 
Representative Assembly are the acts of the whole body, and 
consequently of the whole nation. If, therefore, a majority thus 
constituted are bound by no law human or divine, and have no 
other rule but their sovereign will and pleasure to direct them, 
what possible security can any citizen of the nation have for the 
protection of his unalienable rights ? The principles of hberty 
must still be the sport of arbitrary power, and the hideous form 
of despotism must lay aside the diadem and the scepter, only to 
assume the party-colored garments of democracy. 

The system of principles upon which Mr. Paine advances 
this assertion is intended to prove, that the English nation have 
a right to destroy their present form of Government, and to erect 
another, I am not disposed to deny this right, nor is it at present 
necessary to examine whether Mr. Burke's opinions upon this 
subject are not directed rather against the expediency than the 
abstracted rights of such a measure. It may, however, not be 
improper to trace the origin of Mr. Paine's arguments against the 
principles maintained by Mr, Burke. Doctor Price has asserted, 
that by "the principles of the Revolution in 1688 the people of 
England had acquired the right, i. To choose their own Gov- 
ernors. 2. To cashier them for misconduct ; and, 3. To frame a 
Government for themselves." Mr. Burke endeavors to prove 
that the principles of the Revolution in 1688, so far from war- 
ranting any right of this kind, support a doctrine almost dia- 
metrically opposite. Mr. Paine, in reply, cuts the Gordian knot 
at once, declares the Parliament of 1688 to have been downright 
usurpers, censures them for having unwisely sent to Holland for a 
King, denies the existence of a British Constitution, and invites 
the people of England to overturn their present Government, and 
to erect another upon the broad basis of national sovereignty, 



72 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

and government by representation. As Mr. Paine has departed 
altogether from the principles of the Revolution, and has torn 
up by the roots all reasoning from the British Constitution, by 
the denial of its existence, it becomes necessary to examine his 
works upon the grounds which he has chosen to assume. If we 
judge of the production from its apparent tendency, we may call 
it an address to the English nation, attempting to prove that they 
have a right to form a new Constitution, that it is expedient for 
them immediately to exercise that right, and that, in the forma- 
tion of this Constitution, they can do no better than to imitate 
the model set before them by the French National Assembly. 
However immethodical his production is, I believe the whole of 
its argumentative part may be referred to these three points. If 
the subject were to affect only the British nation, we might leave 
them to reason and act for themselves ; but. Sir, these are con- 
cerns equally important to all mankind ; and the citizens of 
America are called upon from high authority to rally round the 
standard of this champion of Revolutions. I shall therefore now 
proceed to examine the reasons upon which he founds his opinions 
relative to each of these points. 

The people of England have, in common with other nations, a 
natural and unalienable right to form a Constitution of Govern- 
ment, not because a whole nation has a right to do whatever it 
chooses to do, but because Government being instituted for the 
common security of the natural rights of every individual, it 
must be liable to alterations whenever it becomes incompetent 
for that purpose. The right of a people to legislate for succeed- 
ing generations derives all its authority from the consent of that 
posterity who are bound by their laws ; and therefore the expres- 
sions of perpetuity used by the Parliament of 1688, contain no 
absurdity ; and expressions of a similar nature may be found in 
all the Constitutions of the United States. 

But, Sir, when this right is thus admitted in its fullest latitude, 
it must also be admitted, that it ought never to be exercised but 
in cases of extreme urgency : Every nation has a right as unques- 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 73- 

tionable to dissolve the bands of civil society, by which they are 
united, and to return to that state of individual imbecility in 
which man is supposed to have existed, previous to the formation 
of the social compact. The people of America have been com- 
pelled, by an unaccountable necessity, distressing in its operation, 
but glorious in its consequences, to exercise this right; and when- 
ever a nation has no other alternative but the degradation of 
slavery, or the formidable conflict of a Revolution, the generous 
spirit of freedom will not hesitate a moment in the choice. Whether 
the people of France were, at the period of their Revolution, re- 
duced to that unhappy situation, which rendered it absolutely 
necessary to overthrow their whole system to its foundation, is a 
question upon which the ablest patriots among themselves have 
differed, and upon which we are inadequate to decide. Whether 
the people of England are now in that calamitous predicament ^ 
is a question more proper for our discussion, and upon which I 
shall take the liberty to examine the reasoning of Mr. Paine. 

IIP 

Sir, In examining the question, whether the English nation 
have a right, fundamentally to demolish their present form of 
government .'' it becomes necessary to inquire whether Mr. Paine's 
assertion that there is no such thing as an English Constitution, 
be really true I This question may, perhaps, in some measure 
affect the people of America. For if the government of Great 
Britain is an usurpation, it may be worthy of consideration how 
far we are bound by treaties, which do not reciprocally bind the 
inhabitants of that island. 

"A Constitution," says Mr. Paine, "is not a thing In name 
only but in fact. It has not an ideal, but a real existence ; and 
wherever it cannot be produced In a visible form, there Is none." 
Mr. Paine should have gone farther, and told us, whether, like 
a deed, it must be written on paper or parchment, or whether It 

^ Columbian Centinel, June 15, 1791. 



74 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 i 

has a larger latitude, and may be engraved on stone, or carved 
in wood ? From the tenor of his argument it should seem, that 
he had only the American Constitutions in his mind, for excepting 
them, I believe he would not find in all history, a government 
which will come within his definition ; and of course, there never 
was a people that had a Constitution, previous to the year 1776. 
But the word with an idea affixed to it, had been in use, and com- 
monly understood, for centuries before that period, and therefore 
Mr. Paine must, to suit his purpose, alter its acceptations, and in 
the warmth of his zeal for Revolutions, endeavor to bring about 
a revolution in language also. When all the most illustrious 
Whig writers in England have contended for the liberty of their 
country upon the principles of the English Constitution ; when 
the glorious Congress of 1774 declared, that "the inhabitants of 
the English Colonies in North America were entitled to certain 
rights by the immutable laws of nature, iA^^nwa^/ifj" of the English 
Constitution, and the several charters or compacts," they knew 
very well what they meant, and were perfectly understood by all 
mankind. Mr. Paine says, that "a Constitution is to a Govern- 
ment, what the laws, made afterwards by that Government, are 
to a court of judicature." But when the American States, by 
their Constitutions, expressly adopted the whole body of the 
common law, so far as it was applicable to their respective situa- 
tions, did they adopt nothing at all, because that law cannot be 
produced in a visible form ? No, Sir, the Constitution of a coun- 
try is not the paper or parchment upon which the compact is 
written, it is the system of fundamental laws, by which the people 
have consented to be governed, which is always supposed to be 
impressed upon the mind of every individual, and of which the 
written or printed copies are nothing more than the evidence. 

In this sense, Sir, the British nation have a Constitution, which 
was for many years the admiration of the world; the people of 
America, with very good reason, have renounced some of its ' 
defects and infirmities. But in defence of some of its principles, 
they have fought and conquered. It is composed of a venerable! 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 75 

system of unwritten or customary laws, handed down from time 
immemorial, and sanctioned by the accumulated experience of 
ages ; and of a body of statutes enacted by an authority lawfully 
competent to that purpose. Mr. Paine is certainly mistaken, 
when he considers the British government as having originated in 
the conquest of William of Normandy. This principle of being 
governed by an oral or traditionary law, prevailed in England 
eleven hundred years before that invasion. It has continued to 
this day, and has been adopted by all the American States. I 
hope they will never abolish a system so excellent, merely because 
it cannot be produced in a visible form. The Constitution of 
Great Britain is a Constitution of principles, not of articles, and 
however frequently it may have been violated by tyrants, mo- 
narchical, aristocratical, or democratical, the people have always 
found it expedient to restore the original foundation, while from 
time to time they have been successful in improving and orna- 
menting the building. 

The people of England are bound therefore by a social compact 
now existing ; and they have no right to demolish their Govern- 
ment, unless it be clearly incompetent for the purposes for which 
it was instituted. They have delegated their whole collective 
power to a Legislature, consisting of a King, Lords, and Commons, 
and they have included even the power of altering the Constitu- 
tion itself. Should they abuse this power so that the nation 
itself should be oppressed, and their rights to life, liberty and 
property, instead of protection, should meet with tyranny, the 
people would certainly be entitled to appeal in the last resort to 
themselves, to resume the trust which has been so unworthily 
betrayed, and (not to do whatever they should choose, but) to 
form another Constitution, which should more permanently 
secure the natural rights of the whole community. The same 
may be said of the National Assembly of France, who, according 
to Mr. Paine's idea, are possessed of the whole collective power 
of the nation, and who seem, like him, to think they have a right 
to do whatever they choose. Mr. Paine says that "the authority 



-](, THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

of the present Assembly is different to what the authority of future 
Assemblies will be." But if the present Assembly should decree 
that all future National Assemblies should possess the same power 
with themselves, it would certainly be binding as an article of 
the Constitution. Mr. Paine, indeed, will not acknowledge this, 
and it is the -second right which he denies his nation, which at the 
same time has a right to do every thing. Mr. Paine's ideas upon 
this subject appear to have been formed by a partial adoption of 
the principle upon which Rousseau founds the social compact. 
But neither the principle of Rousseau, nor that of Air. Paine, is 
true. Rousseau contends that the social compact is formed by a 
personal association of individuals, which must be unanimously 
assented to, and which cannot possibly be made by a representa- 
tive body. I shall not at present spend my time in showing that 
this is neither practicable nor even metaphysically true. I shall 
only observe, that its operation would annihilate in an instant, 
all the power of the National Assembly, and turn the whole body 
of the American Constitutions, the pride of man, the glory of the 
human understanding, into a mass of tyrannical and unfounded 
usurpations. Air. Paine does not go quite so far, but we must 
examine whether his arguments are not equally wide from the 
truth. "A Government," says he, "on the principles on which 
constitutional Governments arising out of society are established, 
cannot have the right of altering itself. Why not ? Because if it 
had, it would be arbitrary." But this reason is not sufficient. A 
nation in forming a social compact may delegate the whole of 
their collective powers to ordinary legislatures, in perpetual suc- 
cession, and reserve only the right of refusing the abuse of those 
powers ; and every other question relative to the reservation of 
powers to the nation, must be only a question of expediency. 
The same power which the present National Assembly possess in 
France, is, by the English Constitution, constantly vested in the 
King and Parliament of Great Britain ; and the people in both 
kingdoms have the same right to resist and punish the abuse of 
that power. 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ^^ 

Surely, Sir, the people of the United States have a Constitu- 
tion, although they have given the power of making alterations 
to those by whom it is administered, in conjunction with the 
State Legislatures. Surely, the people of Massachusetts have a 
Constitution, though it provides for certain alterations by the 
ordinary Legislatures, and though, since it was formed, such 
alterations have accordingly been made. The Constitutions of 
several of the United States are expressly made alterable in every 
part by their ordinary Legislatures. I think there is not one of 
them but admits of alterations without recurring to "the nation 
in its original character." Yet Air. Paine will surely acknowledge, 
that the American Constitutions arose out of the people, and not 
over them. His principle, therefore, "that a Constitutional 
Government cannot have the right of altering itself," is not true. 
In forming their Constitution, a nation may reserve to themselves 
such powers as they may think proper. They may reserve only 
the unalienable right of resistance against tyranny. The people 
of England have reserved only this right. The French National 
Assembly have been in session more than two years to make laws 
nominally paramount to their future Legislatures. I shall hazard 
some observations upon this subject, when I attempt to follow 
Mr. Paine through his comparison between the French and Eng- 
lish Constitutions. But as the English have delegated all their 
power, I contend they have no right in their original character 
to change their form of Government, unless it has become incom- 
petent for the purposes for which all Governments are instituted. 
I am aware of the question which will occur here. Who is to 
judge of this incompetency ? and I am aware of the triumphant 
manner in which it may be asked. But a triumph is not my 
object, and in the pursuit of truth I shall venture in my next 
number to consider this subject. 

IV 1 

Sir, I have assumed for a principle, that the English nation," 
having delegated all their collective power, have no right in their 

• Columbian Centinel, June i8, 1791. 



78 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

original character to change their form of Government, unless it 
has become absolutely inadequate to the purposes for which it 
was instituted. The people themselves must, from the necessity 
of the case, be the judges of this fact; but if, in forming this judg- 
ment, and acting in pursuance of it, they proceed from passion, 
and not from principle ; if they dissolve their compact, from an 
idea that "they have a right to do whatever they choose," and 
break the bands of society, in the forms of despotism, "because 
such is their pleasure," they may indeed go through the operation 
by the plenitude of their irresistible power; but the nation will 
meet with ample punishment in their own misery, and the leaders 
who delude them, in the detestation of their own posterity. It is 
not by adopting the malignity of a political satyrist, by convert- 
ing the saUies of wit into the maxims of truth or justice, or by 
magnifying trivial imperfections into capital crimes, that a nation 
will be justified in resorting to its original strength, to contend 
against its delegated power. It is not now a mechanical horror 
against the name of a king, or of aristocracy, nor a physical an- 
tipathy to the sound of an extravagant title, or to the sight of an 
innocent riband that can authorise a people to lay violent hands 
upon the Constitution, which protects their rights, and guards 
their liberties. They must feel an actual deprivation of their 
equal rights, and see an actual impossibility for their restoration 
in any other manner, before they can have a right to lay their 
hands on their swords, and appeal to Heaven. These are not the 
principles of slavery ; they are the tenets of the only genuine 
liberty, which consists in a mean equally distant from the despo- 
tism of an individual, as of a million. They are sanctioned by 
our own uniform example, and will, I trust, never be departed 
from by the most enlightened, and most virtuous people on the 
globe. For sixteen years the people of America endured a con- 
tinual succession of every indignity, which the pride of dominion, 
the insolence of power, and the rapacity of avarice, could inflict 
upon them, before they could resolve to renounce an authority 
three thousand miles distant from them ; and even then, they were 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 79 

so far from thinking they had a right to do whatever they chose, 
that by the very act which renounced their connection with 
Great Britain they exposed to the world their own sufferings, and 
the various acts of tyranny which had compelled them "to ac- 
quiesce in the necessity which denounced the separation," and 
"appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of 
their intentions." No, Sir, the venerable character who drew up 
this declaration never could believe that the rights of a nation 
have no other limits than its powers. Since the Revolution, the 
people of the United States have again been compelled to form 
a national Government, and in its formation proceeded in the same 
spirit. The confederation was found totally incompetent for the 
purposes for which it was instituted ; not from abuse of the 
delegated powers, in those by whom it was administered, but 
because scarcely any powers at all had been given. The ineffi- 
ciency of that system had long been fully demonstrated, and had 
reduced us to extreme distress. The States, united but in name, 
were upon the verge of general bankruptcy. Their credit, sunk 
to the lowest ebb, was upon the point of expiring, and their ex- 
hausted treasury gave perpetually the lie to their public faith, 
so often and so solemnly pledged. The forcible ties of a common 
interest, directed to one great object during the war, were greatly 
loosened by the accomplishment of that object, and the seeds of 
mutual hostility were sown by the partial commercial regulations 
of the respective States. The revenue laws which had been enacted 
in several of the States were not able to support their credit, and 
yet were so unequal in their operation, that numerous bodies of 
men, in more than one of the States, appeared in open rebellion 
against the mildest governments that ever were instituted. In- 
stead of the glorious reward which the people had expected for 
their virtuous exertions, internal discord, and infamy abroad, 
presented themselves in dreary perspective before them. At this 
critical period, when the system to be annihilated was an empty 
name, and there was only a Government to be formed, the national 
Constitution was presented to the people of America " in 



8o THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

their original character " ; and even there its existence was to 
depend upon the assent of nine States, that is, two-thirds of the 
people. Very fortunately it has at length been freely adopted 
by all the members of the Union ; but the extreme difficulty 
which impeded the progress of its adoption, and the various 
amendments, which, in many of the States, were in a manner 
made the condition of their assent, exhibit the fullest evidence, 
what a more than Herculean task it is to unite the opinions of a 
free people, upon any system of government whatever. 

Under the sanction of such authority, I venture to assert that 
the people of England have no right to destroy their government, 
unless in its operation the rights of the people are really oppressed, 
and unless they have attempted in vain every constitutional 
mode of obtaining redress. These principles ought to operate 
with peculiar force upon the people of England, because, in the 
uncertain and hazardous event of a revolution, they have more 
to lose and less to gain, than any other European nation, and be- 
cause whatever they may acquire, must, in all probability, be 
purchased at the expense of a civil war. When provision is made 
for the alteration of a constitution, otherwise than by the common 
legislative power, it may be done comparatively without difficulty 
or danger; but where this power is already delegated, with the 
other powers of legislation, the people cannot use it themselves, 
except in their original, individual unrepresented character, and 
they cannot acquire the right to act in that capacity, until the 
power which they have thus conveyed in trust, has been abdicated 
by the extreme abuses of its administration. 

When Mr. Paine invited the people of England to destroy their 
present Government and form another Constitution, he should have 
given them sober reasoning and not flippant witticisms. He 
should have explained to them the nature of the grievances by 
which they are oppressed, and demonstrated the impossibility 
of reforming the Government in its present organization. He 
should have pointed out to them some possible method for them 
to act in their original character, without a total dissolution of 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 8i 

civil society among them ; he should have proved what great 
advantages they would reap as a nation from such a revolution, 
without disguising the great dangers and formidable difficulties 
with which it must be attended. 

The principal and most dangerous abuses in the English Govern- 
ment arise less from the defects inherent in the Constitution, than 
from the state of society; the universal venality and corruption 
which pervade all classes of men in that kingdom, and which 
a change of government could not reform. I shall consider this 
subject more largely hereafter; but at present, with respect to 
the expediency of a revolution in England, I must inquire how the 
nation can be brought to act in their original character .'' Mr. 
Paine, perhaps, from the delicacy of his situation, has said nothing 
openly upon this very important point. Yet, in two different 
parts of his work, he seems obscurely to hint two methods for the 
accomplishment of this object. When he compares the situation 
of the citizens of London to that of the inhabitants of Paris just 
before the taking of the Bastille, it seems as if it was with an inten- 
tion to recommend a similar insurrection for the purpose of dis- 
persing the Parliament, and expelling the King, which would 
leave the nation without any government at all, and compel them 
at all events to act in their original character. When he advises 
"Revolutions by accommodation," he must probably mean, that 
a convention should be called by act of Parliament to regenerate 
their Constitution. I can not imagine any other method of answer- 
ing his purpose. Mr. Paine seems to think it as easy for a nation 
to change its government, as for a man to change his coat; but I 
confess, both the modes of proceeding which he suggests appear 
to me to be liable to great objections. 

"There are in all European countries," says Mr. Paine, "a 
large class of people of that description, which in England are 
called the mob." It was by the people of this description that 

* Columbian Centinel, June 22, 1791- 
G 



82 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

the Bastille in Paris was destroyed. In London there is no 
Bastille to demolish ; but there is a government to overturn ; and 
there is a King and Parliament, who must either be put to flight, 
or compelled to call a convention for the purpose of forming a 
Constitution. "In the commencement of a Revolution those 
men are rather the followers of the camp than of the standard of 
liberty, and have yet to be instructed how to reverence it." As 
these men were made instrumental to the accomplishment of the 
Revolution in France, Mr. Paine appears to intimate that they 
may be employed for a similar purpose in England. I am as little 
disposed as Mr. Paine can be, to reproach either the whole nation 
to which they belong, or that unhappy class of human beings 
themselves, for the devastation which they commit. They cannot 
be considered as free agents, and therefore are neither the subjects 
of praise or blame; but the friend of humanity will be extremely 
cautious how he ventures to put in action a tremendous power, 
which is competent only to the purposes of destruction, and totally 
incapable either to create or to preserve. This class of men, of 
whom it is the happiness of Americans scarcely to be able to form 
an idea, can be brought to act in concert upon no other principles 
than those of a frantic enthusiasm and ungovernable fury ; their 
profound ignorance and deplorable credulity make them proper 
tools for any man who can inflame their passions, or alarm their 
superstition ; and as they have nothing to lose by the total dis- 
solution of civil society, their rage may be easily directed against 
any victim which may be pointed out to them. They are alto- 
gether incapable of forming a rational judgment either upon the 
principles or the motives of their own conduct ; and whether the 
object for which they are made to contend, be good or bad, the 
brutal arm of power is all the assistance they can afford for its 
accomplishment. To set in motion this inert mass, the eccentric 
vivacity of a madman is infinitely better calculated than the sober 
coolness of phlegmatic reason. They need only to be provoked and 
irritated, and they never can in any other manner be called into 
action. In the year 1780, they assembled at London to the num- 



i79r] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 83 

ber of 60,000, under the direction of Lord George Gordon, and 
carrying fire and slaughter before them, were upon the point of 
giving the whole city of London to one undistinguished devasta- 
tion and destruction : and this, because the Parliament had miti- 
gated the severity of a sanguinary and tyrannical law of perse- 
cution against the Roman Catholics. Should these people be 
taught that they have a right to do every thing, and that the titles 
of Kings and Nobles, and the wealth of Bishops, are all usurpations 
and robberies committed upon them, I believe it would not be 
difficult to rouse their passions, and to prepare them for every 
work of ruin and destruction. But, Sir, when they are once put 
in motion, they soon get beyond all restraint and control. The 
rights of man, to life, liberty, and property, oppose but a feeble 
barrier to them ; the beauteous face of nature, and the elegant 
refinements of art, the hoary head of wisdom, and the enchanting 
smile of beauty, are all equally liable to become obnoxious to 
them ; and as all their power consists in destruction, whatever 
meets with their displeasure must be devoted to ruin. Could any 
thing but an imperious, over-ruling necessity justify any man, or 
body of men, for using a weapon like this to operate a Revolution 
in Government ? Such indeed was the situation of the French 
National Assembly, when they directed the electric fluid of this 
popular frenzy against the ancient fabric of their monarchy. 
They justly thought that no price could purchase too dearly the 
fall of arbitrary power in an individual, but, perhaps, even they 
were not aware of all the consequences which might follow from 
committing the existence of the kingdom to the custody of a lawless 
and desperate rabble. 

But do the people of England labor under such intolerable 
oppression, as would authorise any of their patriots to employ an 
arm like this for their relief ? Suppose sixty thousand men should 
again assemble round Westminster-hall, and with clubs and fire- 
brands for their sole arguments, should compel the Parliament 
to call a convention to make a Constitution, what would be the 
probable consequences ? Is it clear that so large a majority of the 



84 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

people of England have lost all their attachment to their Constitu- 
tion, as to insure an acquiescence in the measure throughout the 
kingdom ? Is it certain that one quarter part of the people would 
obey an act extorted by such violence as that ? Would not all 
the friends of the present Government rally round the standard 
of the Constitution, and would not their duty compel them to 
defend it with their lives and fortunes ? If it should soon appear 
that they were decidedly the strongest party, would not the in- 
surrection be extinguished in the blood of its leaders ? If the 
parties should prove to be nearly equal, would not the nation be 
involved in all the horrors of a long and bloody civil war ? In 
whatever point of view, the effects of this scheme are contemplated, 
they present nothing but prospects at which every friend of man- 
kind must shudder; nor can I possibly believe that Mr. Paine, 
who is certainly a benevolent man, would deliberately recom- 
mend this method, though, in his ardent zeal for the honor of the 
French nation, and the propagation of their doctrine, he has 
incautiously suggested it. 

But he recommends Revolutions by accommodation ; which, 
applied to England, must mean that a convention be called by 
a free and deliberate act of Parliament, to alter the Constitution ; 
but this plan appears to be equally dangerous with the other, and 
more impracticable; while, by a singular fatality, an act of this 
kind would be the completest evidence of its own inutility, it would 
be equally dangerous, because by a formal act of competent 
authority it would expose the kingdom to all the evils of anarchy 
and of war, which in the other case would result from a popular 
convulsion. It would be less practicable, because it is contrary 
to nature, that any body of men should venture to perform the 
most transcendent act of power of which human beings are capable, 
for the single purpose of divesting themselves of all power whatever. 
It would prove its own inutility, because no man will presume that 
they ought to take such a measure, unless the wishes of a clear 
and decided majority of the people are favorable to an alteration 
of the Government. If they are disposed to act in conformity 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 85 

with the desires of the people, the very same power which would 
authorise them to dissolve the Government, would likewise justify 
them in making any alterations which would meet with the wishes 
of the nation, and would render a recurrence to them "in their 
original character " perfectly unnecessary. 

Whatever Mr. Paine's opinion may be with respect to the 
existence of an English Constitution, it is certain that every mem- 
ber of the British Parliament who gives his vote in the making 
of a new law, or the alteration of an old one, must suppose that he 
acts by virtue of a Constitutional right vested in him ; but the 
same right which authorises him to give his suffrage in the most 
trifling object of legislation, has vested in the Parliament, of which 
he is a member, the whole power of the British nation, and he 
cannot possibly deny their right without utterly destroying his 
own. The right of the individual depends altogether upon the 
right of the corporation, and his right to vote for the regulation 
of a turnpike, or the toll of a bridge, is the same with theirs to make 
every necessary and convenient alteration in the Constitution 
of the kingdom itself. While they are thus convinced of their 
right to exercise these great powers, would it not be the summit 
of extravagance and folly in them, nay, would it not be the most 
flagrant breach of the trust reposed in them, of which they could 
possibly be guilty, to abdicate an authority lawfully committed 
to them, to declare themselves altogether incompetent to a wise 
and prudent use of a Constitutional power, and to commit the 
peace, the welfare, the very existence of the nation, to the uncer- 
tain and hazardous event of a Revolution ? 

If, however, w^e can suppose that the Parliament should finally 
accede to the idea, that they are mere tyrants without the shadow 
of a right to the authority which they have hitherto exercised, the 
only act which they could agree to, would be a vote to dissolve 
themselves, and leave the vessel of the state without either a pilot 
or a rudder. For the very act of calling a convention would be 
an usurpation, and, from the importance of its consequences, an 
usurpation of the most daring nature : it would be assuming the 



86 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

right to dissolve the ties of society, and at the same instant ac- 
knowledging that this assumed right was without any sort of 
foundation. In short, this plan of calling a convention to alter 
the Constitution, by act of Parliament, appears to me, in what- 
ever light it be considered, to involve an absurdity. 

But, as there is unquestionably somewhere in England, a com- 
bination of the right and of the power to alter the Constitution 
of the country, and as that Constitution is indubitably liable to 
be improved, we may be permitted to inquire, whether a blind 
imitation of the French National Assembly would probably pro- 
mote the happiness of the people, the only objects for which all 
Governments were instituted, or which can authorise their altera- 
tion. 

VI 1 

Sir, Mr. Paine affirms that the French nation have a Constitu- 
tion, and that the English have none. I have already offered a 
few observations upon the latter part of this assertion ; but, as a 
preliminary to some remarks which I propose to make upon his 
comparison, I must premise, that directly the reverse of his 
opinion upon this subject is the truth, and that in reality the Eng- 
lish nation have a Constitution, and the French as yet have none. 
The National Assembly have indeed been constantly sitting these 
two years, to form a Constitution ; and at the ceremony of the 
Federation about eleven months since, they swore themselves and 
their King to the observance of a Constitution to he made. But 
as they are still possessed of the whole power of the nation, they 
may repeal any article upon which they have hitherto agreed, by 
virtue of the same authority, which enabled them to pass the 
decree, and, therefore, according to Mr. Paine's own ideas, the 
French cannot be said to have a Constitution, until the National 
Assembly shall please to dissolve themselves, and to put their 
whole system into full operation. 

I have endeavored to show that it is not absolutely essential 

^ Columbian Centinel, June 29, 1791. 



i79i] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 87 

to the existence of a Constitution, that it should be producible 
"in a visible form." The period of time when the foundations 
of the present English Government were laid by the association 
of the people in "their original character" cannot, indeed, be 
ascertained. Alany of the laws which are in use to this day in 
Great Britain, and from thence have been adopted by the American 
Republics, may be traced back to the remotest period of antiquity, 
and the origin even of the institution of Juries, an institution so 
congenial to the genuine spirit of freedom, is lost in the obscurity 
of the fabulous ages. Many of the fundamental principles of the 
English Constitution are known to have existed long before the 
invention of printing, and even before the inhabitants of Britain 
were acquainted with the use of letters, and it would therefore be 
an absurdity to require that the original articles should be produced 
"in a visible form." But "^:v nihilo, nihil fit/' the very existence 
of these principles proves the formation of a social compact pre- 
vious to that existence, and the spirit of liberty, which is their 
distinguishing characteristic, affords internal evidence, that they did 
not originate in the merciless despotism of a conqueror, but in the 
free and unrestrained consent of a manly and generous people. It 
will not be said that an original compact was never formed, because 
it is not recorded in the page of history ; as well might it be pre- 
tended that the pyramids of Egypt arose self-created from the 
earth, because the time of their erection, and the names of their 
builders have been consigned to that oblivion in which all human 
labors are destined to be overwhelmed. 

William of Normandy, to whom Mr. Paine always refers the 
origin of the English Government, was the conqueror only of 
Harold. He obtained the crown of England by popular election, 
upon the express condition that he would govern the nation accord- 
ing to her ancient laws and customs ; he took the same oath at his 
coronation which had been taken by his predecessors, and by his 
last will, after bequeathing the province of Normandy to his eldest 
son Robert, he expressly acknowledged that he did not possess the 
kingdom of England as an inheritance, and only recommended his 



88 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

son William as his successor. It would be altogether unnecessary 
at this time to discuss the question whether the crown of England 
was originally hereditary or elective, but the facts which I have 
here stated, and which are warranted by all the most ancient and 
most authentic English historians, fully demonstrate that the 
English Government did not originate in the Norman conquest. 
"If the succession runs in the line of the conquest, the nation runs 
in the line of being conquered, and it ought to rescue itself from 
this reproach," says Mr. Paine. "The victory obtained at Hast- 
ings not being a victory over the nation collectively, but only over 
the person of Harold, the only right that the conqueror could 
pretend to acquire thereby, was the right to possess the crown 
of England, not to alter the nature of the Government," says Judge 
Blackstone (i Comm. 199). Upon a question of fact relative to 
the English Constitution, Blackstone is, I believe, as good an 
authority as Mr. Paine, but I wish not to rest the question upon 
any authority whatever : I venture to affirm, that any man who 
will coolly and impartially examine the subject, and appeal to the 
original sources of information, will acknowledge that those who 
derive the origin of the English Government from William the Con- 
queror, can do it upon no other principle than that of supporting 
a system. 

It is not, however, necessary upon the present occasion to 
revive a question which has been discussed among the English with 
all the acrimony of faction. Mr. Paine has chosen the ground which 
was not found tenable by the slavish supporters of passive obedience 
and the divine right of Kings. They took it originally, because 
it was necessary to them for the support of their system, and 
they were driven from it by the friends and supporters of equal 
liberty. Mr. Paine found it necessary to support a doctrine of 
a very different nature; and adopting the maxim, that it is lawful 
to learn, even from our enemies, he has freely borrowed from them 
the practice of accommodating the facts of history to his political 
purposes. 

Be that, however, as it may, the Parliament of Great Britain, 



1791] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 89 

from time to time, have enacted certain laws, which, from their 
superior importance, have been denominated Constitutional ; 
the acquiescence of the people, to whom most of these laws have 
been extremely satisfactory, gives them at least as good a sanc- 
tion as the Constitution of France has obtained. The National 
Assembly were not originally chosen to form a Constitution. 
They were called together as States General, under the authority 
of another Constitution, such as it was. They assumed the power 
to dissolve the old Constitution, and to form another, and the ac- 
quiescence of the people has confirmed their assumption. At 
all events, therefore, their Constitution stands upon no better 
ground than the acts of the British Parliament. 

If, then, the Parliament of Great Britain have a right to declare 
what shall be the supreme law of the land, they will be able to 
produce a system of Constitutional law, even according to Mr. 
Paine's wish, "in a visible form." This system is contained in a 
number of statutes, enacted not at one time, or by one body of 
men, but at divers times, according to the occasional conven- 
ience of the people, and by a competent authority. These statutes 
contain the principles upon which the English Government is 
founded, and are therefore proper objects of comparison with the 
Constitution which is to be the supreme law of the land in France. 
The comparisons which Mr. Paine has drawn are not partially 
favorable to his native country. We shall enquire whether they 
are perfectly consistent with truth. 

VIII 

Sir, By the English Constitution, the whole collective power of 
the nation is delegated, and the Constitution itself is alterable 
by the same authority which is competent to the common pur- 
poses of legislation. 

The French are to have a Constitution, every part of which 
will be nominally beyond the control of their common legislatures, 

^ Columbian Centinel, July 2, 1791. 



90 



THE WRITINGS OF [1791 



and which will be unalterable in all parts, except by the nation 
in its "original character." At least Mr. Paine has undertaken 
to answer for them that it will be so : although I have not seen any 
such article in the Constitution, and though perhaps it has not yet 
been decreed, I am willing to take Mr. Paine's word for the fact, 
and to consider the subject as if it were already determined. 

I have made some observations upon Mr. Paine's arguments, 
as they respect the right of a nation to delegate all their power. 
As a question of expediency, it may perhaps be more difficult to 
determine, which of these two schemes contains the least evil. 
Both of them are supported by the example of several among the 
American States, and can therefore boast the sanction of authorities 
equally respectable. 

The fundamental principle upon which society is formed appears 
to be, in order that the power of the whole may be rendered sub- 
servient to the interests of the whole. The problem to solve is, 
in what manner the power shall be distributed, so as most effec- 
tually to answer that purpose ^ Considering the extreme diffi- 
culty with which a whole nation can be brought to act in their 
original character, it should seem, that wisdom must dictate to 
them the necessity of delegating their whole power in such a 
manner as that it may be rendered beneficial to the nation, because 
whatever power is retained by the people, cannot be exercised 
for their advantage any more than to their injury. The question 
therefore occurs, why a nation should not delegate all its powers ? 
Mr. Paine has bestowed very little consideration upon this subject; 
I find, that although he gives his own opinion very freely, he offers 
only two reasons to support it. One, because "such a Govern- 
ment would be arbitrary :" the other, because "there is a paradox 
in the idea of vitiated bodies reforming themselves." In the 
sense in which the word arbitrary is here used, the first argument 
attacks the foundation of civil society itself; for whenever a 
number of individuals associate together, and form themselves 
into a body politic, called a nation, the possession and the use of 
the whole power (which is not, however, arbitrary power) is the 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 91 

very object of their association. This power must exist some- 
where, and I cannot see the reason why it should not exist for 
the benefit of the people. But whenever a Constitution is made 
unalterable by the common legislative authority, the nation do in 
reality abdicate all the powers which they are said to retain, 
and declare that very important powers shall at all events be useless 
to them, from an apprehension that they might possibly be abused 
to their injury. It is as if a man should bind himself never to wear 
a sword, lest he should turn it against his own breast. The only 
reason why the whole power of a nation should not be delegated, 
must arise from the danger of its being abused : and a melancholy 
experience has always shown, that when the whole power has been 
thus delegated to one man, or to one body of men, it has invariably 
been grossly abused, and the sword of the people has been turned 
into a dagger against them. From the pressure of those evils, 
many nations have been induced expressly to forbid their govern- 
ments the use of certain powers, without considering that the 
Impotence of their supreme authority would certainly be very 
prejudicial to them, and perhaps as fatal as the abuse of power. 
This experiment has repeatedly been made ; it has frequently 
failed : and I believe, that after several more experiments shall 
fully demonstrate the ill policies of thus annihilating the power of 
the nation, it will be clearly seen, that all the powers of the people 
ought to be delegated for their benefit, and that their true interest 
consists in the distribution of those powers in such a manner as 
shall, in its own operation, guard against the abuses which alone 
are dangerous to the people. 

The Constitution of the United States appears to me to unite 
all the advantages, both of the French and of the English, while 
it has avoided the evils of both. By that Constitution, the 
people have delegated the power of alteration, by vesting it in the 
Congress, together with the State Legislatures ; while at the same 
time it has provided for alterations by the people themselves in 
their original character, whenever it shall evidently appear to be 
the wish of the people to make them. This article appears to be 



92 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

replete with wisdom ; I believe it will stand the test of the severest 
examination, though, according to the ideas emanating from Mr. 
Paine, and coming to us, at the same time, by reflection from the 
Secretary of State, it contains a very dangerous political heresy. 

It is a maxim which will not, I trust, be disputed, that no 
Government, of which the people is not a constituent part, can 
secure their equal rights ; but where this is the case, to cramp 
the operations of their own Government with unnecessary re- 
strictions, and forbid themselves to enact useful laws, what is it 
but to defeat the purposes of society by the very act which gives 
it a permanent existence ; to tie their own hands from an imaginary 
apprehension, that if left at liberty, they would administer poison to 
the body which nourishes them. 

It is in the distribution of the national powers, it is in the inde- 
pendent spirit of the people, and not in the manuscript limitations 
of the legislative authority, that a nation is to secure the protection 
of its liberties. In this commonwealth we have a Constitution, 
most parts of which are unalterable by our ordinary Legislatures; 
it has existed but ten years : and already its operation has con- 
vinced us all, that several alterations in the system would be highly 
expedient. Our Legislative body would be fully competent to the 
purpose, and, if they had the power, would readily make such 
alterations as might suit the convenience of the people ; but they 
have no authority to act in these cases for the benefit of the people ; 
and as the Inconveniences to which this injudicious jealousy has 
subjected us, are not at this time of such importance, as to render 
the alterations of immediate or absolute necessity, we must wait 
our appointed time, and patiently submit to the operation of bad 
laws, because we have not chosen to invest our Legislature with the 
power of making good ones. Let us not be frightened, however, 
from the pursuit of our common interest by the words arbitrary 
power. Distribute the whole of your power in such a manner, as 
will necessarily prevent any one man, or body of men, or any possible 
combination of individual interests, from being arbitrary, but do 
not incumber your own representatives with shackles, prejudicial 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 93 

to your own interests ; nor suffer yourselves, like the Spanish 
Monarch of ridiculous memory, to be roasted to death, by denying 
to your servants the powe? of removing the fire from before you. 

But although a Constitution, professedly unalterable by the 
common legislative authority, is of weight sufficient to prevent 
the enacting of many good laws, yet it will not always operate as a 
check upon your legislature. Such is the poverty of all human 
labors, that even a whole nation cannot express themselves upon 
paper with so much accuracy and precision, as not to admit of 
much latitude of explanation and construction. The Legislature 
must always be allowed to judge of the intentions with which the 
instrument was formed, and to construe and explain accordingly 
the expressions which it contains. They some times think proper 
to violate the letter of the Constitution by adhering to its spirit, 
and at other times they sacrifice the spirit by adhering strictly 
to the letter. But when your Legislature undertakes to decide 
that the spirit of the Constitution is directly contrary to its express 
letter, where is the power in the nation that should control them ? 
The same power which will always be sufficient to control a Legis- 
lature, of which the people are a constituent part ; it is the spirit 
of the people. Let your legislative and executive authorities be 
so constituted, as to prevent every essential, or dangerous abuse 
of the powers delegated, but depend upon the honest and en- 
lightened spirit of the people for a security which you never will 
obtain, by merely withholding your powers, unless that spirit 
should be constantly kept up. Divide your power so that every 
part of it may at all times be used for your advantage, but in such 
a manner, that your rights may never depend upon the will of any 
one man or body of men ; entrust even the power of altering your 
Constitution itself, because occasion may arise, when the use even 
of that power may be absolutely necessary for your own welfare; 
when, at the same time, it may be impossible for you to act in your 
original character, with the expedition necessary for your salvation : 
but reserve to yourselves a concurrent power of altering the 
Constitution in your own persons, because by the decay to which 



94 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

all the works of man are liable, it is possible that your Legislature 
may become incompetent to make such alterations as may be 
necessary. But when the people are constantly represented in 
the Legislature, I believe they will never find it necessary to re- 
cur to their original character, in order to make any alterations, 
which they may deem expedient, unless they deny the power of 
making them to their Legislature. 

"But," says Mr. Paine, "there is a paradox in the idea of 
vitiated bodies reforming themselves." This must depend alto- 
gether upon the coincidence of the part vitiated with the part which 
is to apply the remedy ; for unless the defect itself necessarily pre- 
cludes the possibility of applying the power of reformation, the 
paradox ceases, and no more involves an absurdity, than that a 
physician should use his own prescriptions to cure himself of a dis- 
order. 

The very act by which septennial Parliaments were established 
in England, affords sufficient proof that the power of altering 
the constitution itself ought to be delegated, and even exercised 
by the Government upon certain critical occasions. That act 
was made at a time when the kingdom was threatened with an 
immediate invasion, when a rebellion had but just been quelled, and 
when the peace and safety of the nation depended upon the use of 
this power by the Parliament ; such was the opinion of the people 
at that time, and the act met with general approbation, from the 
general conviction of its necessity. Such occasions may happen in 
the history of every free people, and it is therefore proper that the 
power should be delegated. Upon the principles of equal liberty, 
upon the principles of public happiness, and therefore of political 
expedience, I think it may be fairly concluded, that Mr. Paine's 
preference of the French to the English constitution, so far as it 
relates to this article, is not founded in truth. ^ 

' "Publicola has been reprinted in all the most respectable papers to the south- 
ward. His animadverters, not answerers, swarm like Bees, and, like Drone Bees 
they only buz. 

" Sk^^As it has been asserted in one of the Philadelphia newspapers, that the 
papers under the signature of Publicola, were written by the Vice President, in 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 95 

VIII 1 

Mr. Paine has undertaken to compare the English and French 
constitutions, upon the article of representation. He has of course 
admired the latter, and censured the former. This is unquestion- 
ably the most defective part of the English constitution, but even 
the most essential of these defects appear to flow from the natural 
order of things which a revolution in government could not reform ; 
from a state of society, when every principle of religion or of moral- 
ity has lost its influence, and where the only shadow of virtue, 
public or private, remaining among a great majority of the people, 
is founded upon an Imaginary point of honor, the relict of the 
exploded age of chivalry. Such at present is the situation of the 
national character both in England and in France. To attempt to 
govern a nation like this, under the form of a democracy, to pretend 
to establish over such beings a government which according to 
Rousseau is calculated only for a republic of Gods, and which 
requires the continual exercise of virtues beyond the reach of 
human infirmity, even in its best estate ; it may possibly be among 
the dreams of Mr. Paine, but it is what even the National Assembly 
have not ventured to do; their system will avoid some of the 
defects, which the decays of time and the mutability of human 
affairs have introduced into that of the English, but I do not 
hesitate to affirm that they have departed much further from the es- 
sential principles of popular representation, and that however their 
attachment to republican principles may have been celebrated, 
the theory of their National Assembly is more remote from the 
spirit of democracy than the practice of the English House of 
Commons. 

The ground upon which Mr, Paine acknowledges his approbation 
of the French constitution are that they have limited the number of 
their representatives, in proportion to the numbers of citizens 

justice to that gentleman, and the publick, they are assured that he has no more 
concern in the publication, than the author of 'Rights of Man ' himself." Columbian 
Centinel, July 2, 1791. 

' Columbian Centinel, July 9, 1791. 



96 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

who pay a tax of 60 sous per annum, and the duration of the 
assembly to two years. It is certainly essential to the principles 
of representation that there should be a frequent recurrence to the 
constituent body for election, because it is the only security of 
the constituent for the fidelity of the agent. It is the only practical 
responsibility by which the representative is bound. The term 
of seven years for which the House of Commons is elected, weakens 
the responsibility too much, and is a proper object of constitutional 
reform ; but by the French constitutions, there is no responsibility 
at all ; no connexion between the representative and his constituent : 
The people have not even once in seven years an opportunity to 
dismiss a servant who may have displeased them, or to re-elect 
another who may have given them satisfaction. There is upon 
the French system less dependence of the representative upon his 
constituent than in England, and the mode of election renders the 
biennial return of the choice almost wholly nugatory. It is 
not true that the French constitution allows the privilege of 
voting for a representative in the National Assembly to every man 
who pays a tax of 60 sous per annum. Mr. Paine has mistaken 
the fact, for it is impossible that he should have intentionally 
misrepresented it; though it differs almost as much from his 
principles as from those of a real popular representation. It 
is as follows. Every Frenchman born or naturalized, of 23 
years of age, who pays a tax equal to three days' labor, is not a 
hired servant, nor a bankrupt, nor the son of a deceased bank- 
rupt (a very unjust qualification), shall be allowed to vote for — 
what ? A representative to the National Assembly .'' By no 
means. Yet one would think the exclusions sufficiently severe, 
for a government founded upon the equal rights of all men ; but he 
shall vote for members of a certain assembly; this assembly is 
allowed to choose, not the representatives of the nation, but 
another body of electors, who are to be the immediate constituents 
of the legislative assembly. Thus the supreme legislative council 
of the nation, are to be the representatives of a representative body, 
whose constituents are the representatives of the people ; and at 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 97 

every stage of this complicated representation, the free citizens 
of the state, are excluded from their natural rights, by additional 
qualifications in point of property. Yet this is the system which 
we are told is to abolish aristocracy. 

In the formation of the legislative body, the National Assembly 
contemplated three diflFerent objects of representation, the persons 
of the people, their property, and the territory which they inhabit : 
They have endeavored to establish a proportion compounded 
from the three, but in the refinement of their metaphysics and 
mathematics, they have lost the primary object itself, and the 
people are not represented. 

But setting aside their calculations, what is the essential prin- 
ciple upon which the representation of the people in the legis- 
lature is to be grounded ? It is, that a Freeman shall never be 
bound by any law unless he has consented to it. It is impossible, 
except in a very small state, that every individual should personally 
give his voice, and therefore this practice of voting by representa- 
tion was invented. In its most perfect state it cannot fully answer 
the purpose of its institution, because every representative is 
actuated by several powerful motives, which could not operate 
upon his constituents. It is an artificial democracy, which never 
can perform completely the functions of the natural democracy; 
but imperfect as it always must be, no other contrivance has been 
hitherto devised, which could so efltectually give their operation 
to the opinions of the people. In the theory of representation it 
is a personal trust, by which a thousand individuals may authorise 
one man to express their sentiments upon every law which may be 
enacted for the benefit of the whole people : and therefore in 
theory every representative ought to be elected by the unanimous 
vote of his constituents ; for how can a man be said to have been 
consulted in the formation of a law, when the agent authorised to 
express his opinion was not the man of his choice ? Every pecuniary 
qualification imposed either on the electors or as a condition of 
elegibility, is an additional restriction upon the natural democracy, 
and weakens the original purpose of the institution. Thus far the 



98 THE WRITINGS OF I1791 

people of America have submitted to necessity in the constitution 
of their popular assemblies. But when the principle is abandoned 
so completely, that the individual citizen, even in the pretended 
exercise of his infinitesimal fragment of sovereignty cannot 
possibly form an opinion, who will be the elector of the represen- 
tative that is to be the depositary of his opinion in the acts of legis- 
lation ? The assembly thus formed may indeed assume the name 
of a democracy, but it will no more be entitled to the appellation 
than an ill drawn miniature portrait, to that of the animated 
original which it may profess to represent. 

It is obvious that the reason why the National Assembly have 
chosen to refine their representation through so many strainers 
was to avoid the violence, the tumults, the riots which render 
almost all the populous towns in England a scene of war and 
blood at the period of Parliamentary elections. Time alone will 
inform us what the success of their system will be, even in this 
particular. Their elections, however, must be extremely ex- 
pensive, and must open a thousand avenues to every sort of 
intrigue and venality. The National Assembly as a body, will be 
in theory an aristocracy without responsibility. This aristocracy 
thus constituted are to possess the supreme power of the nation, 
limited only by a printed constitution subject to their own con- 
struction and explanation. 

Happy, thrice happy the people of America ! whose gentle- 
ness of manners and habits of virtue are still sufficient to reconcile 
"^ the enjoyment of their natural rights, with the peace and tran- 
quillity of their country ; whose principles of religious liberty 
did not result from an indiscriminate contempt of all religion 
whatever, and whose equal representation in their legislative 
councils was founded upon an equality really existing among 
them, and not upon the metaphysical speculations of fanciful 
politicians, vainly contending against the unalterable course of 
events, and the established order of nature. 



i79i] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 99 

IX 1 

From the existence of game laws and of monopolies in England, 
Mr. Paine infers the wisdom of the National Assembly, who have 
decreed, that there shall be none in France. I shall not defend 
the game laws or the monopolies allowed in England ; Mr. Paine's 
comparisons are made with the professed intention of showing the 
superiority of the French Constitution, and he has therefore always 
chosen his own ground of comparison. He might have pursued a 
system more consistent with truth and candor, but it would not 
have answered his purpose so effectually. The true drift of Mr. 
Paine's argument in this instance is this, The English Parliament 
have enacted game laws that operate unequally. They have allowed 
more monopolies than are advantageous to the people ; therefore the 
Legislature of a nation ought not to have the power to make any laws 
at all, relative either to game, or to monopolies. This is Mr. Paine's 
principle, and it is the real ground upon which he prefers the 
French Constitution, not merely to that of England, but to those 
of every State in the American union. He infers that the English 
Constitution is bad, because under that Constitution certain bad 
laws have been enacted, and are not yet repealed. And he con- 
cludes that the French Constitution is excellent, because the 
universal freedom of the chase, and the universal freedom of 
trade are placed beyond the control of their Legislature. But the 
preservation of game is an object of public concern, and the Legis- 
lature of every country ought to have the power of making game 
laws for the benefit of the public. Whether the English Parliament 
have exerted unwisely this power which has been delegated to 
them or not, is a question altogether foreign to the purpose ; we 
know that bad laws exist in every country under Heaven, but it is 
strange reasoning, to infer from thence, that there ought not to 
exist in the nation a power to make good ones. All the Legislatures 
in the United States have the power to enact game laws and to 
allow monopolies. They all of them exercise this power. We have 

* Columbian Centinel, July 13, 1791. 



lOO 



THE WRITINGS OF [1791 



game laws and monopolies in this Commonwealth, and yet no 
man complains that they are destructive to his liberty. If the 
French Constitution has placed the regulation of those objects 
beyond the reach of their ordinary legislative authority, they will 
soon find by their experiences of inconveniencies that the goodness 
of a Constitution does not depend upon the impotence of the 
Legislature. 

In examining the next article it is utterly impossible for me to do 
justice to the wit of Mr. Paine. The charge which he has so often 
repeated against Mr. Burke's book cannot be made against this 
production. You find here nothing of the "spouting rank of 
high-toned exclamation : " You do not even find the delicate 
sallies of elegant comedy. His own words must be quoted : 
"The French Constitution says, that to preserve the National 
representation from being corrupt, no member of the National 
Assembly shall be an officer of the government, a placeman or a 
pensioner. What will Mr. Burke place against this ^ I will 
whisper his answer : Loaves and Fishes.''^ And then he proceeds 
to show that the answer which he whispers for Mr. Burke is 
very ridiculous. There is, it must be acknowledged, something 
pleasant in this mode of managing an argument; but it is rather 
unfortunate that Mr. Paine should complain as an abuse of the 
English government, that it is "themselves accountable to them- 
selves," so near to a passage which is most assuredly "himself 
undertaking to answer himself." Every person will acknowledge 
that the answer of Loaves and Fishes is very absurd ; it is even too 
absurd for Mr. Burke in his original character; and the only 
circumstance that renders it perfectly accountable is, that it comes 
from Mr. Burke by his representative, who certainly never had 
from him any authority to misrepresent him so palpably. 

Mr. Paine has seldom thought proper to answer even the few 
arguments contained in the book which is so obnoxious to him : 
Easy as it might have been to refute Mr. Burke's reasoning, he 
probably thought it easier to refute his own : He has hunted for 
epigrams where he ought to have sought arguments : In the 



1791] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS loi 

pursuit of those epigrams he has been sometimes not unsuccessful 
in exposing the absurdity of his own reasoning, but a less passionate 
or more generous political polemic, would not have chosen to 
place his own inconsistencies to the account of his antagonist. 

Mr. Paine has not however grounded his preference to the 
French Constitution upon truth, in this instance any more than in 
the other. The principle of excluding placemen, pensioners and 
executive officers from the national representation is acknowledged 
by the laws under the English Constitution as well as in that of 
France. The only possible advantage which the French can 
pretend to, is, that they have been more successful in its appli- 
cation. Mr. Paine might have said that it was not sufficiently 
extended by the English laws, and that it was by the French ; and 
his opinion would have had its weight; but this would not answer 
his purpose; the French Constitution must at all events have a 
triumph ; and a system so odious as the English government, was 
not entitled to the benefits of common truth and justice. There 
are however several acts of Parliament ; expressly excluding a 
great variety of placemen, pensioners and officers dependent upon 
the executive authority, from holding seats in the House of 
Commons. With respect to pensioners their principle is more 
equitable than the total exclusion of the French. Every person 
holding a pension at the pleasure of the King, or for a term of years 
is excluded, because such a man may be too liable to be under 
the influence of the executive power; but if a man has received a 
pension for life, as a reward for services rendered his country, 
a pension which carries no dependence, and which can have no 
effect upon the legislative conduct of the person entitled to it, 
neither the English nor the Americans think that former services 
are a regular disqualification for the future; nor are they disposed 
to deprive any man of an invaluable privilege, merely because 
they have paid him for hazarding his life perhaps, or his fortune in 
their service. 

But, says Mr. Paine, by the English Constitution "those who 
vote the supplies are the same persons who receive the supplies 



I02 



THE WRITINGS OF [1791 



when voted, and are to account for the expenditure of those supplies 
to those who voted them ; it is themselves accountable to them- 
selves." This to be sure is very ingenious, but it is not in any 
sense true. The persons who vote the supplies are the House of 
Commons, the representatives of the nation : To them the King's 
ministers (and principally the Chancellor of the Exchequer) are 
accountable for the expenditure of the monies voted. The ministers 
may indeed be at the same time members of the House of Commons, 
and the system is perhaps defective in allowing a few individuals 
to be members of the body to whom they are accountable. It 
may be inconvenient, but is not at all absurd, and is purposely 
authorised by the English Constitution, because they con- 
sider the advantages as more than a balance for its incon- 
veniences. The minister of the supreme executive ofhce, states 
to the representatives of the nation, the sums necessary to 
defray the annual expenses of the kingdom. These repre- 
sentatives vote the assessment of such sums as they think 
necessary, and make the appropriations. The ministers then 
become accountable for the expenditures according to the 
previous appropriations, to that body of which they are indeed 
individual members, but of which they do not compose an hun- 
dredth part. Upon what principle then are we told that it is 
themselves accountable to themselves ? They have indeed in 
France taken great pains to secure the independence of the legis- 
lative upon the executive authority; but they have not been 
equally cautious on the other side. Their executive is left 
totally at the mercy of the legislature, and must Infallibly soon fall 
a sacrifice to their ambition. 

The discussion of this subject would lead me far beyond my 
present intention. I have shown that the Constitution of England 
has adopted the principle of excluding citizens dependent upon 
the executive power, from the House of Commons ; the French 
Constitution has done no more ; and if they have carried the appli- 
cation of the principle further, that circumstance does not warrant 
the decided preference which Mr. Paine has so liberally bestowed : 



i79i] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 103 

Since it is only a difference of opinion upon the expediency of 
particular exclusions. 

The next article upon which Mr. Paine has pronounced the 
superiority of the French Constitution, is upon the subject of 
making war and peace. The right, he says, is placed where the 
expense is, that is, in the nation : Whereas "in England, the right 
is said to reside in a metaphor, shown at the Tower for six pence 
or a shilling a piece." He answers himself again in this passage, 
and shows the folly of placing such a formidable right in a metaphor ; 
but in this instance as in the former, there is much wit and no 
truth ; and I must take the liberty to affirm in contradiction to 
Mr. Paine, that the French Constitution has not, nor could not 
place the right of declaring war, where the expense must fall; 
and that the English Constitution has not placed this right in a 
metaphor. 

The expense of supporting wars must in all countries be defrayed 
by the nation, and every individual must bear his proportion of 
the burthen. In free countries that proportion must always be 
determined by the representatives of the people ; but the right of 
deciding when it may be expedient to engage in a war, cannot 
possibly be retained by the people of a populous and extensive 
territory, it must be a delegated power ; and the French Constitu- 
tion has vested it in the National Assembly. By the English 
Constitution it is vested in the supreme executive officer; but 
to guard against the abuse of this formidable power, it has given 
to the representatives of the people, the exclusive right of providing 
for the support of the war, and of withholding the supplies, "the 
sinews of war," if it should ever be declared contrary to the sense 
of the people themselves. Mr. Paine supposes a perplexity, which 
is warranted neither by theory nor by the experience of history. 
"If the one rashly declares war," says he, "as a matter of right; 
and the other peremptorily withholds the supplies as a matter of 

^ Columbian Centinel, July 20, 1791. 



104 



THE WRITINGS OF I1791 



right, the remedy becomes as bad or worse than the disease." But 
every war in England must be the war of the people : The King is 
in reality no more than the organ of the nation, and must be more 
than an idiot to declare a war, upon which he must depend alto- 
gether upon them for its support, without being certain of that 
support. Imaginary conclusions drawn by reasoning against the 
inevitable order of things, are unworthy of a politician, and 
should be left as a feeble resource for the satirist. To have given 
his objection even an appearance of plausibility, Mr. Paine should 
have mentioned an instance, when this clashing of the rights of the 
King and of the Commons has ever been productive of the ill 
effects which his fancy has sagaciously drawn from them. 

Indeed Mr. Paine himself, upon further reflection, acknowledges 
the futility of his objection, and says "that in the manner the 
English nation is represented, it signifies not where this right 
resides, whether in the Crown or in the Parliament." But I 
apprehend, if the representation in England were as perfect as 
human wisdom could devise, their present system with respect 
to peace and war, would comprise all the advantages of the French 
system, and at the same time be free from many inconveniences, 
to which that must be liable. 

It must be clear to every one that the French have not, as Mr. 
Paine pretends, united the right and the expense: The impracti- 
cability of such an union, must be equally evident ; and the only 
question which can establish a fair ground of comparison, between 
the two constitutions is. Whether it is expedient to delegate to the 
legislative^ or whether to the executive authority, the right of declaring 

war. 

As I am not yet a convert to Mr. Paine's opinion that a nation 
has a right to do what it pleases, I must be allowed to say that they 
have a right to make war upon their neighbors, without provocation. 
The people by their representatives must judge, when the provoca- 
tion is sufficient to dissolve them from all the obligations of moral- 
ity and humanity, by which nations are bound to preserve the 
blessings of peace. But when they have determined that the 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 105 

great law of self-preservation, to which all other laws must give 
way, or that the laws which they have enacted in consequence of 
the primitive contract which united all their power for the benefit 
of every individual, compel them to appeal for justice to the God 
of battles, then, the declaration of war, the formal act, by which 
they announce to the world their intention to employ the arm of 
power in their own defence, seems to be the proper attribute of 
the executive power. The difference, therefore, between the 
English and French constitutions, considered in this light, can 
involve only a question of propriety, and as such the English 
appears to me to deserve the preference. 

If this idea should be considered as heretical, I must beg leave 
to call to my assistance the authority of Rousseau, a name still 
more respectable than that of Mr. Paine, because death has 
given the ultimate sanction to his reputation. "The act of 
declaring war," says he in his Social Compact, "and that of making 
peace, have been considered as acts of sovereignty, which is not 
the case ; for either of those acts is not a law, but only an applica- 
tion of the law; a particular act which determines the operation 
of the law, as will be clearly perceived when the idea annexed 
to the word law shall be ascertained." The spirit of the English 
constitution is perfectly agreeable to this idea. 

But let us consider this subject a little further. Whenever a 
difference arises between two nations which may terminate in a 
war, it is proper and customary, that previous negotiations should 
be held, in order to use every possible means of settling amicably 
the dispute. These negotiations, the appointment of the agents 
by whom they are to be conducted, and the communication of the 
proposals for accommodation, which are respectively offered by 
either of the parties, are all appropriated to the executive depart- 
ment. When the restoration of peace becomes expedient in the 
opinion of the people, agents must again be appointed, and pro- 
posals of pacification must again be made. It is obvious to every 
man, that in the management of these concerns the utmost secrecy 
and despatch are frequently of essential necessity to the welfare 



To6 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

of the people ; but what secrecy can ever be expected, when every 
instruction to an ambassador, every article of a proposed treaty, 
and every circumstance of information from the minister, in 
the progress of his operations, must be known to twelve hundred 
men assembled in the capital of the republic ; what probability 
of despatch, when all these things must be debated in this As- 
sembly of 1200 men; where every thing must in the necessary 
order of events be opposed, by interested individuals and irritated 
factions, who may protract the discussion for months or years at 
their pleasure. 

By the Constitution of the United States, it Is true, the right 
of declaring war is vested in the Congress, that is, in the legislative 
power. But it is in the point of form that it agrees with the 
Constitution of France ; it has wisely placed the management 
of all negotiations and treaties, and the appointment of all 
agents and ministers in the executive department ; and It 
has so thoroughly adopted In this instance the principles 
of the English Constitution, that although It has given the 
Congress the right of declaring war, which is merely a diiference of 
form, it has vested in the President, with the advice of the Senate 
as his executive council, the right of making peace, which is 
Implied In that of forming treaties. This Is not the first Instance 
in which Mr. Paine's principles attack those of the constitutions 
of his country. Highly as we may revere, however, the principles 
which we are under every obligation to support, we may without 
irreverence acknowledge that they partake of the human imperfec- 
tion from which they originated, and if Mr. Paine's principles 
in opposition to them, are in any Instance founded upon eternal 
truth, we may Indulge the hope, that every necessary Improvement 
will be adopted in a peaceable and amicable manner by the general 
consent of the people. But if the principles of Mr. Paine, or 
those of the French National Assembly, would lead us by a vain 
and delusive pretence of an impracticable union, between the 
right of declaring, and the expense of supporting a war, to the 
sacrifice of principles founded in immutable truth, if they could 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 107 

persuade us, by establishing in the legislative body all negotiations 
with foreign nations relative to war and peace, to open a thousand 
avenues for base intrigue, for furious faction, for foreign bribery, 
and domestic treason, let us remain immoveably fixed at the 
banners of our constitutional freedom, and not desert the im- 
pregnable fortress of our liberties, for the unsubstantial fabric 
of visionary politicians.^ 

XI 2 

The papers under the signature of Publicola have called forth 
a torrent of abuse, not upon their real author nor upon the senti- 
ments they express, but upon a supposed author, and supposed 
sentiments. 

With respect to the author, not one of the conjectures that have 
appeared in the public prints has been well grounded. The Vice- 
President neither wrote nor corrected them ; he did not give his 
sanction to an individual sentiment contained in them, nor did 
they "go to the press under the assumed patronage of his son." 

With respect to the sentiments, to those who have read the 
pieces with attention, it is needless to say, that they are simply 
an examination of certain principles and arguments contained 

^ "It would seem as if Mr. Fenno and Mr. Russell had entered into a league 
to insert the detestable heresies of Publicola, without publishing a single essay to 
counteract their pernicious tendency. But it is to be hoped that the ex -parte 
perusal which Publicola obtains in this way will not procure many proselytes either 
to monarchy or aristocracy. Publicola seems to have some talents, but perverted 
as they are, they are worse than thrown away. Like Burke he has attempted to 
raise a structure upon a rotten foundation; and his tottering edifice, like that of 
Burke, would soon have fallen into ruins of itself. Its fate, however, has been 
accelerated by the numerous assailants it has had to encounter. It is a circum- 
stance highly honorable to the political character of our country, that an host of 
enlightened writers have arisen, in every part of the United States, to oppose the 
abominable heresies of Publicola." [Brown's] Federal Gazette, Philadelphia, 
July, 1791. It was this journal that intimated a communication between John 
Adams and Burke, and asserted that Publicola appeared in consequence of that 
communication. 

^ Columbian Centinel, July 27, 1791. 



io8 THE WRITINGS OF [1791 

in a late pamphlet of Mr. Paine's, which are supposed to be 
directly opposite to principles acknowledged by the constitu- 
tions of our country. And the author challenges all the writers 
who have appeared in support of Mr. Paine's infallibility, to 
produce a single passage to these publications which has the most 
distant tendency to recommend either a monarchy or an aristoc- 
racy to the citizens of these States. 

The writer never had the intention to defend the corruptions 
of the English Constitution; nor even its principles in theory, 
except such as were adopted in our own. Mr. Paine has drawn 
a comparison between certain parts of the English and French 
constitutions, in which are contained principles of government, 
that are not acknowledged by our own constitutions. So far as 
the principles of the English Constitution have been adopted by 
the Americans, I have defended them, and I am firmly convinced, 
that we cannot renounce them, without renouncing at the same time 
the happy governments with which we are favored. The question 
of superiority between the French and English constitutions, has 
no connection with a question relative to monarchy. If this be 
true, it must apply equally to the admirers of the French Constitu- 
tion, and Mr. Paine himself is chargeable with having supported a 
monarchical institution. It is well known that by the French 
Constitution, a standing army of near 300,000 men is estab- 
lished, and placed beyond the annihilating arm of legislature. 
Is it possible that Mr. Paine should admire this Constitution, with- 
out being a friend to standing armies ? The argument is the same, 
and the assertion might be made, with just as much truth, as that 
PuBLicoLA is an advocate for monarchy or for aristocracy. 

When Mr. Paine says that a whole nation (by which it is ad- 
mitted that he means a majority of the nation) have a right to 
do what it chooses, and when he says that before the formation 
of civil society every man has a natural right to judge in his own 
cause, it appears to me that he resolves all right into power; it 
is this opinion which I have combated, because it appears to me 
to be of the most pernicious tendency, and if it is not really 



I79I] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 109 

contained in the pamphlet, I confess myself greatly mistaken. 
But the enlightened writers, who have defended the principles of 
Mr. Paine, differ so essentially in the ground they have taken, 
that the one or the other would certainly have been charged with 
propagating detestable heresies, had not the end sanctified the 
means, and the object of defending Mr. Paine, reconciled the 
inconsistency of their reasonings. One writer supports the prin- 
ciple through thick and thin ; and tells you that the will of the 
contracting parties is the only circumstance that makes treaties 
obligatory. Another tells you that I have grossly misrepresented 
Mr. Paine, and that the national omnipotence which he estab- 
lishes relates only to the internal concerns of the community. He 
agrees, however, that the will of the majority must be taken for 
the will of the whole nation, and that with respect to the forma- 
tion of a government, a majority have a right to do what they 
please. So that it is no longer the "rights of men," but the rights 
of the majority which alone are unalienable. 

Upon the question whether a constitution government can 
be made alterable otherwise than by the people in their original 
character, I have defended the Constitutions of the United States 
against the principle of Mr. Paine, though in the republication 
of the paper in several of the southern papers, the passage which 
supports my opinion by the authority of the Constitution, is 
omitted. 

Upon the article of representation, I have contended that the 
French representation Is no representation of the people at all. 
Is there a man in the United States who would recommend it as a 
model to us ."* I have contended that our representation of the 
people is infinitely superior both to the French and the English ; 
and this is said to be an abominable heresy. 

Upon the subject of monopolies, of game laws, and of exclusions 
from the legislature, I have defended the principles adopted by our 
own constitutions, and not the abuses of the English Government. 
Upon that of war and peace I have done the same, and wherein Mr. 
Paine's observations have appeared to be founded upon any other 



no THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

foundation than truth, I have endeavored to show their fallacy. 
But a defence of monarchy or aristocracy was no more in my inten- 
tion, than the defence of the Salic Law of descents was to that of 
Mr. Paine. 

I shall now conclude these papers with requesting that those 
only who read them would judge upon their principles; and 
I am well persuaded, that the candour of the public will not take 
misrepresentation for reason, nor invective for argument.^ 

TO THOMAS BOYLSTON ADAMS 

Boston, February ist, 1792. 
My dear Brother, — I have been for more than three 
weeks indebted to you for two very agreeable letters, 
which Mr. Otis brought from you. They would not have 
remained so long unanswered but for a variety of circum- 
stances which have concurred to engross all my time during 
that period. It is possible that you may have observed in 
the Centinel about a month since, that a Committee of 21 
Inhabitants of this Town was chosen in town-meeting,- to 
report to the town what measures it might be proper to 
take in order to reform the present state of the police of 
the town ; and you may have noticed that my name was 

^"Publicola in attempting to build up his baneful system of Monarchy and 
Aristocracy, has in a most wanton manner, attempted to raise his superstructure, 
on the ruins both of the Reputation and Liberties of the People. But however 
this writer may plead in behalf of a King and Nobility, yet the People of those 
countries, it is not doubted, will feel their weight and importance, and e'er long 
exercise their natural rights, to obtain their influence in the scale of government. 

"I believe it may with truth be said, that sentiments so derogatory to the 
dignity of the people have not been propagated in this country, since the days of 
Hutchinson; and from the illiberality of the observations, and their horrid conse- 
quences, I dare not harbor a thought, that any American, much more a Ruler of 
America, is so lost to every sentiment of propriety and decency, as to be the author 
of them." "A Republican," in the Independent Chronicle, July 21, 1791. 

* Columbian Centinel, January 14, 1792. The meeting was held on the 13th. 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS iii 

among those of several of the most respectable characters 
In this town upon that Committee ; if you read the Cen- 
tinels in course as they arrive, you must have seen that this 
Committee reported a certain plan, which after being de- 
bated in town meeting for three days was finally rejected 
by the votes of 700 men against more than 500 who were 
in favor of its adoption.^ If you have noticed all these 
circumstances, it is probable you may feel some degree of 
curiosity to know something further upon the subject : 
You will perhaps wish to be informed what it is, that has 
thus agitated the whole town of Boston these five or six 
weeks, how it happened that I was placed upon this same 
Committee, and why the report was rejected. I will tell 
you, at the risque of fatiguing you with a tedious narration, 
which you may throw aside if it should become intolerable. 
The Government of this town, in its corporate capacity, 
like that of all the other towns in this Commonwealth, is a 
pure democracy; all the affairs of the town are transacted 
by the inhabitants in town meeting assembled, or by com- 
mittees appointed by them ; excepting certain powers 
which are vested in the Select-men, and which are very 
immaterial. The by-laws of the corporation are supposed 
to be enacted by the whole body of the people, and to be 
put in force by trials before Justices of the Peace. In con- 
sequence of this system, the fact is, that no by-laws are 
enforced at all, and the inhabitants are subjected to various 
inconveniences, for the want of some internal regulation. 
Several attempts have been heretofore made to introduce 
a reformation, and to induce the inhabitants to request for 
a city charter. Those attempts have always been in- 
effectual, and the inconveniences have continued. About 
six weeks since, a town meeting was called, where after a 

^ At the meeting on January 26. The vote was 701 against 517. 



112 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

debate upon the subject, in which the objects to be reformed 
were fully laid open and explained, the Committee, which I 
have already mentioned, were chosen. It was a subject 
upon which I felt altogether uninterested, having been so 
short a time an inhabitant of the town, and suffering per- 
sonally very little from the inconveniences which had occa- 
sioned the complaints from whence that town-meeting 
resulted. I happened however quite accidentally to be 
present at the meeting and was nominated by Dr. Jarvis,^ 
to be a member of the Committee, and was accordingly 
chosen. He was indeed the last man in this town from 
whom I should have expected such a nomination, and I 
cannot very readily account for his motives. Dr. Welsh 
asked him what his object was; and he answered, "that 
this country was under great obligations to my father, 
and he thought it very proper that some notice should be 
taken of his son ; that he observed I generally attended 
the town-meetings, and appeared to interest myself in the 
affairs of the town ; that I was a sensible young man " 
(excuse the vanity of the relation) "and he wished to hear 
my sentiments upon this subject." I mention these cir- 
cumstances because it will, I believe, be somewhat surpris- 
ing to your father, as it was to myself, that the first public 
notice ever shown me by the town of Boston should 
proceed from the nomination of Dr. Jarvis. I may now pro- 
ceed to the transaction of the business itself. The Com- 
mittee met several times, and after discussing the subject 
amply and deliberating with great coolness and harmony 
agreed upon the plan which was proposed, and which you 
have perhaps read. The agreement was unanimous, with 
one exception, which was Mr. B. Austin, commonly called 
Honestus ; he set his face against the reform from the 

' Dr. Charles Jarvis (1748-1807). 



17921 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 113 

beginning and did not agree to one article of the report. 
All the rest, though many of them differing widely as the 
poles, in most of their political sentiments, were fully 
agreed upon this point. When the report was debated in 
town-meeting Austin opposed it with the utmost degree of 
vehemence and absurdity. "It was to destroy the liberties 
of the people ; it was a resignation of the sovereignty of the 
town; it was a link in the chain of aristocratic influence; 
it was intended in its operation to throw the whole burden 
of taxation upon the poor." In short his speeches were 
such a farrago of nonsense and folly that it was hardly 
possible to imagine they could have any effect at all. On 
the other hand, Sullivan and Jarvis and Otis with several 
other gentlemen argued the whole subject over and over 
with more popular eloquence than I ever saw exhibited 
upon any other occasion ; yet upon the final question, the 
result was as I have stated, seven hundred men, who looked 
as if they had been collected from all the jails on the con- 
tinent, with Ben. Austin like another Jack Cade at their 
head, outvoted by their numbers all the combined weight 
and influence of wealth and abilities and of integrity, of 
the whole town. From the whole event I have derived 
some instruction, and above all a confirmation of my abhor- 
rence and contempt of simple democracy as a Government ; 
but I took no part in the debate. It was indeed a very 
good opportunity, that was offered me, of opening a political 
career, especially as I had been put upon the Committee ; 
but for a variety of reasons I chose at least to postpone to 
some future period, my appearance as a speaker in town 
meeting; the principal of which was a want of confidence 
in myself, which operated most forcibly upon me. I hope, 
however, the time will come, when I shall not be so much 
oppressed by my diffidence. 



114 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

But the sequel of the story Is no less curious than the rest. 
The day after the question was decided, Russell the printer^ 
demanded of Austin, in the public street, satisfaction, for 
a personal insult he had received from him at the town- 
meeting ; and upon Austin's refusing to give satisfaction, 
Russell treated him with every possible indignity, and 
gave him a severe corporeal bruising : upon which Austin 
spread abroad that Russell was the mere instrument of 
aristocratic revenge, and that he did not act from resentment 
for his own injury, but at the instigation of a few rich men, 
who were enraged at seeing the success with which he had 
advocated the cause of the people. And such was the obse- 
quious servility of his rabble, that in consequence of this 
suggestion, several hundreds of them assembled the same 
evening; threatened to pull down Russell's printing office, 
and the houses of the aristocrats who wished to enslave the 
people, and actually paraded the streets with clubs, and 
with violent menaces for two or three hours ; however they 
did no real mischief, and the matter seems now to have 
blown over pretty generally ; though the partizans on both 
sides are still warm and ready to quarrel. I have from the 
beginning taken the part of a spectator rather than that 
of an actor in the scene, and I think the whole affair has 
given me some additional knowledge of human nature. 

The present is quite a busy time in our political world; 
there are several other subjects upon which I could write 
you other letters as long and as tedious as this ; but I must 11 
reserve some of my information for your father, to whom 
I am ashamed not to have written this long time. I intend 
soon to give him some account of another occurrence, 
which has made not a little political agitation in our atmos- 
phere. 

' Benjamin Russell, publisher of the Columbian Centinel. 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 115 

I have not much more to say to you respecting myself. 
Our Court of Common Pleas have sat again since I wrote 
you ; I argued one more cause, and was successful. I 
gain my causes, but I get no business : that is at as low an 
ebb as ever, but I am tolerably habituated to the lot, and 
say, with Ancient Pistol, "si fortuna me tormenta, il sperare 
me contenta." 

The petition from the North Parish in Braintree is hitherto 
successful. The Committee of the General Court before 
whom I mentioned to you our having argued the point, 
reported in favour of the petitioners : the bill for incor- 
porating the town of Quincy, has past the Senate and is 
now before the House of Representatives. Hichborn ^ has 
been indefatigable in his opposition to the business in every 
stage of it, but has not yet been able to defeat us. The 
question will not be finally decided till next week. 

Mr. Cranch has been in town about a fortnight upon 
this affair, and attending the Court of Common Pleas. 
He has recovered to all appearance from his sickness, though 
he does not look so healthy, or in such spirits, as he was 
wont. Our other friends are all well. 

Your brother. 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, February 4th, 1792. 
My dear Sir : 

A variety of circumstances have occurred since you left 

this part of the country, which have combined to change 

In some measure the state of our parties In the State. You 

have probably heard of them from other quarters, and 

ought to have heard of them before this from me. I will 

* Benjamin Hichborn, representative from Dorchester. 



ii6 THE WRITINGS OF I1792 

endeavor to retrieve as far as possible my former deficiency, 
and to give an account of the present situation of affairs 
here, so far as I can collect my information from public 
report. 

In the month of October a town meeting was held in 
this town, wherein it was voted to petition our General 
Court for a repeal of the law prohibiting theatrical exhibi- 
tions. The vote was carried by a large majority; but the 
party opposed to the measure was numerous, and a counter- 
petition, signed by more than three hundred persons was 
presented to the legislature at the same time with the 
petition for the repeal. Upon this subject the Lieutenant 
Governor, and Dr. Jarvis were upon the opposite sides of 
the question, and debated the point so warmly together 
that a coolness it is said has ensued between them since 
that time. This however is a matter of small moment in 
comparison with another event which has produced a more 
extraordinary variance. 

When the vacancy upon the bench of our Supreme Ju- 
dicial Court, occasioned by the death of Judge Sargeant,^ 
was to be filled up, the Governor was solllclted by the friends 
of Mr. Dawes (by his father particularly, and perhaps by 
himself) to fix upon him for the office ; and whether from 
motives of personal friendship, or from pecuniary obllga- ! 
tions, or from an idea of the family influence of the man and 
a wish to secure it in his own favor, or whatever his reasons 
were, he did, without consulting an individual member of 
the Council, or any of the Judges of the Supreme Court, or 
even his confidential favorite and adviser, Sullivan, nomi- , 
nate Mr. Dawes. The nomination met with universal dis- " 
approbation. The bench, the bar, and the people at large 
in every part of the state were dissatisfied. The opinion 

» Nathaniel Peaslee Sargeant (1731-1791). 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 117 

that Dawes was not a proper man for the office was uni- 
versal, and the importance of the office itself greatly in- 
creased the discontent which the nomination occasioned. 
That discontent however would have evaporated in a mo- 
mentary censure of the levity and caprice of the Governor, 
as it has upon many former occasions, had not the arrange- 
ment interfered with the views of private interest, and with 
the designs of faction. From the first moment of the nomi- 
nation, it has met with an avowed and determined opposi- 
tion from Sullivan and from Judge Dana, who appear even 
to have joined in a sort of combination to obstruct the 
progress of the appointment. Sullivan has clamored in all 
his private conversations, has scribbled anonymously in the 
newspapers, has personally urged Mr. Dawes to decline the 
appointment, and wrote a long letter to the Governor, per- 
suading him to withdraw the nomination ; and he has so 
decidedly and perseveringly pursued this line of conduct, 
that an actual rupture has taken place between him and the 
Governor. Nay, I have some reason to conjecture that he 
has serious thoughts of advancing as a candidate for the 
chair himself in opposition to the present possessor. The 
pretext of his violent opposition to Dawes is an ardent zeal 
for the dignity of the State. And as an enemy of the 
national government his principle is certainly well founded. 
The Supreme Court of the State has lost much of the venera- 
tion of the people by a former appointment.^ It is indeed 
surprising how that diminution of confidence has in so short 
a period of time since the last change pervaded every part 
of the Commonwealth ; and the mortification of the party 
is greatly aggravated by the respectability of the national 
courts, and the growing attachment of the people to them. 
In addition to this it is said that Sullivan expected that the 

* Of Nathan Gushing. 



ii8 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

salaries of our judges would, before the vacancy should be 
filled up, be raised to £500, in which case he would have 
stood ready to take the place himself, and in the opinion 
of many people his disappointment in this particular has 
exceedingly sharpened his zeal for the dignity of the State. 
Of Judge Dana I feel myself always obliged in duty, and 
from personal attachment, to speak with respect and 
reverence ; but in writing to you upon the state of our 
politics I must not conceal the opinions which are held 
with respect to the motives of his conduct. He has been 
equally open and decided against Mr. Dawes with Sullivan, 
and equally active In endeavoring to prevent the appoint- 
ment. His patriotism and public spirit are allowed, and 
admitted as being much more forcible principles to actuate 
him than Sullivan ; but the peculiar earnestness and even 
virulence with which he pursues Dawes at present, has 
given occasion to a suggestion that the prospect of falling 
to obtain an augmentation of his salary, contributed not a 
little to give additional vigor to his patriotic ardor. His 
eyes as well as those of Sullivan are supposed to be fixed 
upon the chair of State, and possibly he may anticipate an 
increase of his own popularity by maintaining a contest 
against an unpopular measure. The views of the two men 
are so widely different, and Indeed so irreconcileable together, 
that they cannot long act in concert. But as the object of 
keeping Dawes from the bench Is a favorite point with both, 
they have apparently formed a coalition for this particular 
purpose. They have both endeavored to persuade Dawes 
to decline ; both used all their influence with the members 
of the council, that the nomination might be disapprobated, 
but In vain. To decline an appointment which he had 
solllclted, and obtained notwithstanding the opposition of 
Sullivan's influence with the Governor, would in Dawes's 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 119 

opinion betray a want of spirit on his part, and after get- 
ting so good hold of the public loaf, he has no disposition 
to relinquish it. The Council, though most of them were 
dissatisfied, yet would not by passing a negative upon the 
Governor's choice, cast a stigma upon the character of a 
man whom they considered as only unequal to the office; 
and as to the Governor himself, in addition to all the motives 
which originally operated to determine his election, he is 
now induced from obstinacy and resentment to support the 
man whom he brought forward. Dawes is therefore ap- 
pointed and has accepted the appointment. Mr. Dana 
however does not yet give the point. At the same time 
when Mr. Dawes was nominated, Dana was appointed to 
the vacant seat of Chief Justice ; but he has not yet accepted, 
and it is said he intends actually to decline accepting it, 
and that, for the purpose of bringing in question the legal- 
ity of Dawes's appointment. Our law says the Supreme 
Court shall be held by one Chief Justice and four other 
justices, and the inference is that as there were four other 
justices at the time whem Mr. Dana was nominated, the 
Governor had no right to propose a fifth until the Chief 
Justice had declared his acceptance, and taken the oath of 
office. Thus the affair now rests, and the result of all the 
plots and counterplots will probably appear in the course of 
three or four weeks, when the next session of the Supreme 
Court is to be held in this town.^ 

I wrote to my brother by the last post an account of an- 

^ " The judges of the Supreme Court, it is said, intend to oust Dawes by Dana's 
refusing or delaying to accept the office of Chief Justice. They say there was no 
vacancy when Dawes was nominated and appointed, and that all have agreed to 
refuse an appeal to the chair if offered them ; by which means it is probable the 
Governor may be brought to say he had no authority to nominate D[awes], and our 
little friend be compelled to recede." Gore to King, February I, 1792. Life and 
Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 406. 



I20 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

other transaction, which has occasioned much altercation in 
this town, and has also contributed to widen the difference 
in the party. Sullivan and Jarvis strenuously supported 
the system that was proposed, and it was opposed violently 
by Ben. Austin and by the influence of the Lieutenant 
Governor, though he did not publicly appear against it. 
The parties were very severe upon each other in the public 
town meetings, and are said to be still at variance, but 
whether from a sense of necessity for the mutual support of 
their own importance, and of their hostile spirit to the na- 
tional government, they will again come together, or whether 
they will continue to separate until a complete disunion and 
opposition of pursuit shall ensue, must be left to the deter- 
minatioij of time. . . . 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, December 8, 1792. 
Dear Sir : 

Our electors met in this town on Wednesday last, and 
their votes for President and Vice President were unani- 
mous. This was generally expected here, and the event is 
supposed to have been nearly if not wholly the same in all 
the New England states. New York it is imagined was 
unanimous for Mr. Clinton as V[ice] P[resident]. Their 
electors are chosen by their legislature, where their Governor 
has a bare majority, determined to support upon all occasions 
his party and his politics. From the other states you will 
probably hear before us. And upon the whole I presume 
the election will be favorable.^ 

The Governor has at length prevailed in routing the play- 

^ Washington received a unanimous vote of 132. The vote for Vice-President 
was thus divided: Adams, 77; Clinton, 50; Jefferson, 4; Burr, i. 



179-'] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 121 

ers. On Wednesday the Attorney General ^ received orders 
from him and the Council to prosecute the violators of the 
laws immediately. He applied for a warrant to a Justice 
of the Peace returnable before two Justices of the quorum. 
The sheriff arrested one of the actors ^ behind the scenes in 
the course of the play on Wednesday evening, and informed 
the company that unless they dispersed immediately he 
should arrest all the other performers for the evening. The 
company immediately assumed the form of a deliberative 
assembly, and debated the question, whether they should 
retire or direct the players to proceed and bid defiance to the 
sheriff. They concluded that obedience to the law was the 
safest party and withdrew, not without many imprecations 
against the Governor and the law upon which they were 
interrupted. The next morning the examination upon the 
warrant was to take place, and the justices^ met at Faneuil 
Hall, their own offices being too small and the Court House 
occupied by the district court. The Hall was about half 
full of spectators who took every opportunity to express 
their disapprobation of the proceedings. An objection was 
taken by Mr. Otis, counsel for the defendant, to the warrant, 
as not being founded upon oath, but only upon an official 
complaint of the Attorney General. Whether Sullivan 
committed the blunder from ignorance or from inattention, 
or from design, is doubtful, but the by-standers enjoyed a 
hearty laugh at his expense. He has affected a kind of 
neutrality upon this occasion and has avoided giving offence 
to either party by being active on either side. It was sup- 
posed by many persons that he proceeded thus irregularly 
on purpose to give the players an opportunity to escape, and 
he himself wishes to have it understood that he acts only in 
consequence of express directions from the Governor and 

^ James Sullivan. ^ Harper. ' Joseph Greenleaf and Samuel Barrett. 



122 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

Council. The objection however prevailed, and the player 
who had been arrested was discharged amid the loud and 
very improper plaudits of the audience. Justice Barrett 
with proper spirit reproved their conduct in the Hall, upon 
which they were quiet ; but as soon as they got out of the 
Hall they closed the business with three huzzas. The play- 
ers in the meantime had taken the alarm and most of them 
are gone ; so that I hope we shall have no more altercations 
upon this subject.^ . . . 

1 Sullivan gave a history of the law in his communication to the Chronicle: 
" In the year 1742, there was an interval of peace, and the country flourished. The 
town of Boston was nearly as numerous as it now is ; but the Legislature of that 
day thought it proper to pass the act under consideration. It was made a temporary 
act, because the Crown of England, which had a negative upon all our laws at that 
time, would never have consented to a permanent prohibition of that kind. The 
act was several times revived before the present constitution; and in the year 1785, 
since the existence of the Commonwealth, it was revived and continued in force, 
until the year 1797. In the year 1791, the town of Boston, in town-meeting, 
instructed their Representatives to procure a repeal of it, if it could be effected : 
And a large number of inhabitants subscribed and presented a petition against the 
repeal. The whole subject was committed to a committee, who reported against 
the repeal. Upon the question, whether the report should be accepted, two of the 
Boston members exerted their abilities to procure a repeal; but they could not 
obtain a vote in favor of it. . . . Perhaps the majority would not have been so 
great, if a particular member of foreign education, had not aflfronted the House, by 
ridiculing the habits and manners of the people." When some players came from 
the southward, and, in August, 1792, opened a theatre in a newly constructed build- 
ing in Board Alley, the Grand Jury took no action, nor did any individual suggest 
a civil suit, but the Governor [Hancock] mentioned the circumstance in his speech 
to the Legislature, and the General Court informed him they expected the law to 
be supported. No Justice could be found to convict on the complaint of the At- 
torney-General, and the players withdrew and closed their theatre. Independent 
Chronicle, December 13, 1792. 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 123 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, December 16, 1792. 
My dear Sir : 

I received last evening your favor of the 5th instant. 
The votes of the electors in Connecticut and Rhode Island 
were unanimous it seems, as well as in this State. I have 
not heard any further, but we presume there was the same 
unanimity in New Hampshire, which if it be the case will I 
think do credit to New England. We expect nothing but 
the voice of faction from New York, and we know not enough 
what the disposition of the Southern States was. 

I gave you in my last some account of the Governor's 
having at length succeeded in overthrowing the players ; 
but some other circumstances have taken place which at 
that time I had not heard. Two days after the arrest of the 
player which I mentioned in my last, those who still re- 
mained had announced another play, but upon being advised 
by their own friends to desist, they postponed the perform- 
ance. At night however a mob of about two hundred people 
collected together and went up to the Governor's house to 
ask his leave to pull down the play-house. Upon their 
approach towards his house, the family were thrown into 
great consternation, upon the idea that they were of the 
other party, and were coming to insult him. He received, 
however, a deputation from them and, as it is said, au- 
thorised them to proceed upon their riotous design. They 
accordingly went and began to destroy the fences round the 
house, but were soon dispersed by a Justice of the Peace of 
the other party, who went among them with the riot act in 
his pocket, ready to read it to them if there had been occa- 
sion. There has been since then no further attempt to act 
more plays, and all the actors are now gone. 



124 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

But the Governor and his instruments were not content 
with this victory. They must appeal to the public for 
approbation of all his conduct on the occasion and for cen- 
sure upon that of the opposers to the law; and Sullivan 
with the intrepidity of face peculiar to himself came forward 
in last Thursday's paper/ under the signature of a Friend 
to Peace, with the professed design to criminate the breakers 
of the statute and to justify the executive authority. You 
will probably see in the two next Centinels a couple of pieces 
signed Menander in answer to him. I presume he will reply 
but I think the discussion must terminate unfavorably to 
him. The subject cannot be very interesting to you, but 
perhaps an interest in the success of the writer may induce 
you to peruse the discussion. I will send you the publica- 
tion of the Friend to Peace by the next post, and as you will 
receive the Centinel regularly you will there find the answers 
of Menander. 

The unanimity of the electors in this State was by all 
accounts a sore mortification to his State majesty. It 
angered him to the heart and he vented his peevishness 
upon the first objects that presented themselves to him. 
It was on the same day with the election that he made his 
attack upon the players. He made several difficulties about 
signing the warrant upon the treasury for the pay of the 
electors, and delayed until a third message from them was 
accompanied with an intimation to him that unless he 
signed the warrant immediately, they should go to their 
homes without receiving their pay at all. This implied 
menace had its effect, and he signed the warrant. But he 
has aflfected to be much alarmed for his own safety, and to be 
in terror lest a mob should attack his person or his house. 
There have been in the public prints several foolish inflamma- 

^ The Chronicle. 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 125 

tory squibs threatening him with tar and feathers or with 
breaking his windows ; but they have been treated with 
general contempt, and there has not been the sHghtest 
symptom of any popular excesses against him, though he 
has endeavored to excite them in support of his whimsical 
passion against the theatre. 

A French and English newspaper has been commenced 
in this town which is to contain among other things a sum- 
mary account of the French Revolution.^ This account is 
very handsomely written by one of the Aristocratic party 
now here, having been driven from the Island of St. Domingo 
by the triumphant faction there.- He has aimed at im- 
partiality as much as he could ; but if you read the narrative 
you will find he is very bitter against the Duke of Orleans 
to whom he attributes all the calamities of his country. 
The first number only, has been published, and the editor 
has forwarded one of them to you which he will continue 
to do. The translation of that part of the paper will be 
done by me, and I imagine the paper itself will not be con- 
tinued long after that publication Is finished. The pro- 
posals are only for six months. 

1 hope you will not consider me as trifling with my time 
for spending it in translating French politics and discussing 
theatrical questions. My pen has lain dormant for nearly a 
year and a half, and perhaps its revival may with some 
propriety be by essays upon subjects not of the first magni- 
tude. There has been upon my mind a strong sentiment 
of delicacy which has kept me silent In the midst of all the 

iThe Courier de VUnivers, the second newspaper in French published at Boston. 
The first was the Courier de Boston, published by Nancrede, the instructor in French 
at Harvard College, and Issued its first number April 23, 1789, but received too 
little support for its continuance. 

2 Probably a M. d'Hauteval, to whom Adams gave a note of introduction to his 
father, January 5, 1793. 



126 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

scurrility of which you have been the object. The charges 
which private malice and public faction have employed as 
instruments against you, have been so despicable in them- 
selves, that common sense and common honesty must have 
felt some degradation in descending to the refutation of 
them. I have thought that where they could have any 
possible effect, sober reason and plain truth could not 
counteract it, because the minds affected must be too blind 
or too wicked to feel the operation of just sentiments.^ 
The event of the election as far as we know it has corroborated 
my opinion. As to the general measures of the federal 
government, when I have seen them attacked artfully and 
insidiously, as has frequently been the case, I have often 
thought of defending them, but as often have concluded 
that my assistance could not be necessary and could be but 
feeble. The government I supposed needed it not, and as 
to my own advancement I could really see nothing in public 
life but what it was my object to avoid. I have been really 
apprehensive of becoming politically known, before I could 
establish a professional reputation. I knew that my inde- 
pendence and consequently my happiness in life depended 

^ In September King had noted that Washington would be rechosen without 
opposition; "whether the opponents of Mr. Adams will combine their opposition 
I consider as uncertain. Should this be the case Clinton will be their man." 
In New York Burr was intriguing, and, as Hamilton believed, in favor of 
Clinton and against Adams ; but his operations extended to Connecticut, where 
Edwards took an interest in him, and to Pennsylvania, where Dallas supported his 
ambitions. As between these two aspirants Hamilton preferred Clinton, who had 
invariably been an enemy of national principles, to Burr, who was marked by an 
absence of all principle. He wrote, however, decidedly in favor of Adams, who 
"whatever objections may lie against some of his theoretic opinions, is a firm, 
honest, and independent politician." See also his letter to Adams, in Works of 
Alexander Hamilton (Lodge), VIII. 290. King believed "for no good that any 
support be given to the project of Mr. Adams' degradation." Life and Correspon- 
dence of Rufus King, I. 426, 430. 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 127 

upon this, and I have sincerely wished rather to remain in 
the shade than to appear as a politician without any char- 
acter as a lawyer. These sentiments have still great weight 
in my mind, and If therefore you should think me squander- 
ing my attention upon subjects of too trivial import, I hope 
you will do me the justice to believe that it is not for want of 
judgment in my comparative estimation of things. . . . 

MENANDER ' 

. . . The submission of the minority to the will of the majority, 
he - supposes to be the essence of a free government ; and the will of 
the majority he thinks Is only to be collected from the suffrages 
of the constitutional legislature : Or if that legislature should 
themselves overstep the constitutional bounds, a case which, he 
admits, may happen, he points to the remedy provided, by a re- 
currence to the Supreme Judicial Court. But his principle In the 
full latitude to which he extends It Is not true; and, If It were, 
it does not prove the position In support of which It Is advanced. 
In a free government the minority never can be under an obligation 
to sacrifice their rights to the will of the majority, however ex- 
pressed. The constitution of this State Is expressly paramount 
to the laws of the legislature, and every individual In the commu- 
nity has the same right with the legislature to put his own honest con- 
struction upon every clause contained in the constitution. Every indi- 
vidual ought to regulate his conduct upon such occasions by his own 
construction, and If that construction miUtates with that of the legis- 
lature, he has an Indisputable right to violate their laws predicated 
upon their construction. If this be true the conduct of those citizens 
of Boston, who from a cold and deliberate opinion that the law 
prohibiting theatrical entertainments is unconstitutional, have 
attended the exhibitions in Board-Alley, Is not unjustifiable. For 
as to the violent yneasures which the Friend to Peace mentions as 
having been resorted to, they have all been on the part of the 

^ Columbian Centinel, December 19, 1792. * James Sullivan. 



128 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

government. That the law was openly violated is trae, and 
from the nature of the case it could not be otherwise. But if 
disobedience was justifiable at all, the publickness of that diso- 
bedience could not make it unjustifiable. So far have the friends 
to the theatre been from deserving the charge of resorting to 
violent measures, that they even avoided resistance against 
the violent measures which were adopted against them, and by 
an example of moderation very honorable to them, preferred to 
make the sacrifice of their pleasures, and rather than contend with 
the strength of that law, the justice of which they could not acknowl- 
edge. 

But the Friend to Peace mentions to them another remedy, by 
recommending a trial before the Supreme Judicial Court. And 
is this recommendation made in order to prove their conduct 
unjustifiable in violating the law .? Does it not rather prove the 
absurdity of his own censures upon the public manner in which the 
law has been violated ? At one moment he cries out " Where are 
the champions for the unconstitutionality of the law V' And 
at another he charges them with resorting to violent measures, 
merely because they come forward too boldly, and challenge its 
penalties by an open violation. He acknowledges that the only 
determination of the constitutional question must be, by a Jury 
under the direction of the Judges, and yet he denominates violent 
vieasures the action without which that determination cannot be 
had. The proposal that any individual who has broken the law 
should consent to have an information filed against him, is some- 
what singular. A writer who talks so much about free govern- 
ments, methinks should have been more cautious in proposing 
such an expedient to men who complain of a deprivation of con- 
stitutional rights. In order to prove that they have acted unjustifi- 
ably by the breach of a law, he tells them they ought to assume to 
themselves the duties of the Attorney General, to accuse them- 
selves ; that they ought to consent to a mode of proceeding which 
in his own opinion is dangerous in any government, when that 
mode of proceeding is pursued directly against themselves. The 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 129 

friends of the Drama, Sir, are under no obligation, civil, political 
or moral, to court the animadversion of the law. When Mr. 
Hampden in the time of Charles the first, refused to pay the ship 
money, he did not go to the star chamber, and complain of his own 
refusals. A tax of twenty shillings was assessed upon him, which 
he held to be illegal. The twelve Judges of England had already 
delivered their opinions that the tax was legal. Mr. Hampden 
refused to pay it. His violation of what the Judges had declared 
to be law was open and public, but he did not solicit the prosecu- 
tion which he sustained. The cases appear to me to be nearly 
parallel. The friends of the theatre in Boston have publicly 
contravened an act of the legislature, which they do not consider 
as the law of the land ; they have not eluded the regular and con- 
stitutional discussion of the point ; they have not betrayed a 
consciousness of doing wrong, by shrouding themselves in secrecy ; 
they have not fled from the vengeance of the government which they 
have provoked ; they have not shrunk from beneath the gigantic 
arm, which has been raised in "attitude to smite" against them; 
but an invitation to become necessary to a prosecution against 
themselves ; a request that they would call the thunders of the 
government down upon their own heads, may excite their derision, 
but will not probably influence their conduct. 

The observation relative to the dangerous tendency of an 
open disregard to established laws is just, but in its application 
to the present subject, it begs the question in dispute, for no obe- 
dience is due to an unconstitutional act of the legislature. And 
this is known full well to the chief magistrate, whose champion 
the Friend to Peace professes to be. For if sophistry itself can 
ever pick a constitutional question from a law of the United States, 
he seems disposed to be not merely public, but ostentatious in 
professing disobedience. As to the cases put by way of illustra- 
tion, of the people of Medford undertaking to work on Sunday ; 
I confess I cannot see its connection with this subject; and I 
do the justice to the logical talents of the Friend to Peace to 
believe, that it was introduced rather for the sake of glancing at 



I30 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

the excise on still-heads, than to give any additional weight to his 
argument. 

I flatter myself I have now shown that the conduct of the 
opposers to the prohibitory theatrical statute has not been proved 
to be unjustifiable by the Friend to Peace. On the contrary, I 
now contend that their complete justification will flow from his 
own principles. Considering the law as unconstitutional, they 
have sought as far as could reasonably be required of them, all 
the remedies which their censurer points out to them. They have 
not been guilty of that wanton, unnecessary violation of the estab- 
lished law, which he charges them with. They did not act in oppo- 
sition to the statute, until they had sought in vain for relief from 
the Legislature nor until the Legislature added to the mortification 
of rejecting their request by the insulting silence of a triumphant 
majority. When they found that a sullen denial of satisfaction 
was the only answer which the Legislature vouchsafed to make to 
their complaint, they proceeded to the other remedy mentioned 
by the Friend to Peace. They acted in open opposition to the 
statute, and if they had not Hibernian blood enough in their 
veins to turn States witnesses against themselves, they had enough 
of American spirit about them not to avoid by any subterfuge a 
legal investigation. The question of constitutionality they have 
always been ready to meet, and in the meantime, they have 
regulated their conduct by their own sincere opinion upon the 
subject.^ . . . 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, December 22, 1792. 
My dear Sir : 

If we are truly Informed the election of President and 
Vice-President Is decided by the votes of which we have 

^ A second communication, examining the conduct of the executive, was printed 
in the Columbian Centinel, December 22, 1792, and a third, mailing a correction 
in statement, but no change in position, in the same journal, December 22, 1792. 



1792] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 131 

already heard, and which extend no further than Maryland. 
From the indication of the disposition of the people I feel 
much personal gratification, as it shows that the aspersions 
of private malice and of public faction have had no success 
in shaking the reverence and affection which your country- 
men entertained for you, and which you have so richly 
deserved of them ; but I feel still more satisfaction on their 
account, because it shows their attachment to the govern- 
ment itself, and that the artifices of unprincipled ambition 
or of misguided jealousy have not led them astray from the 
pursuit of their own essential interests. Great pains it 
seems were taken to unite the opposition in favor of Gov- 
ernor Clinton, and canvassing letters were received by the 
electors in Rhode Island and Connecticut from New York, 
and even from Virginia. But in both the former States the 
electors and the people, instead of being influenced by those 
letters, resented very much such an insidious attack upon 
the liberty of their suffrages, and their unanimous votes 
may convince the abettors of anarchy and confusion that 
at this time they have "overleapt themselves and fallen on 
the other side." ^ 

The subject of theatrical amusements still continues a 
gentle agitation in this town. We had yesterday a town 
meeting to consider the propriety of remonstrating to the 
Legislature against the prohibitory statute. You will see 
the remonstrance, together with sundry resolutions and an 
address to be presented upon the occasion to the Governor, 
in this day's Centinel, and you will find my name there with 
twenty others as a Committee to present the address, etc. 
The town meeting was more numerous than usual, and yet 
the proceedings were next to unanimous, because all the 

1 The votes of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia were unani- 
mous for Clinton. 



132 THE WRITINGS OF [1792 

other party absented themselves, knowing very well that 
they would be out-voted, if they made their appearance. 
Our friend Otis, you will see, is also upon the Commit- 
tee, though he was decided in his opposition to the last 
year's petition for the repeal. He was present at this meet- 
ing, and after being chosen upon the Committee, he made a 
short speech in which he said that he always felt happy in 
endeavoring to promote the wishes of his fellow citizens, 
and very cheerfully submitted to the decision of the majority, 
even when it was contrary to his own opinion ; that he would 
therefore with pleasure co-operate in any measures to ex- 
press the sentiments of the town and to obtain the object 
which they desired. But in order to avoid an appearance 
of Inconsistency he thought it necessary to declare, that he 
had seen no reason to alter a single sentiment of the opinion 
which he had formerly expressed, and he still continued to 
think that a theatre would do no good to the town. It was 
a little singular that Sullivan was nominated four or five 
times to be a member of this same Committee and upon 
being put was negatived by a majority of votes against him. 
From several circumstances I have reason to suspect that 
his nomination came from Jarvis, whose policy upon this 
occasion seems to be to press into the service all the men of 
abilities or influence who have been in the opposition. But 
with respect to Sullivan the object failed ; for so long as his 
being on the other side afforded the voters a decent pretext 
for voting against him, a majority was found who chose to 
gratify their Inclination to vote against him at any rate. 
So soon as the number of the Committee was completed, 
Jarvis made a speech, in which he said he hoped It would be 
universally understood that the negative passed upon Mr. 
Sullivan was not from any intended disrespect to him, but 
only because it was conceived his official sitiiatlon made it 



\ 



17931 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 133 

improper to require his aid to obtain a repeal of the law. 
This smoothed the matter over well enough, but several 
persons told me they voted against him, because they were 
glad of an opportunity to insult a man whom they hated 
and despised. Here then the matter rests, and I am ap- 
prehensive you will think me tedious in giving so minute a 
detail of it. . . . 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, February 10, 1793. 
My dear Sir : 

As I was going to meeting this afternoon a gentleman 
met me in the street, and desired me to fill him a writ im- 
mediately, which he intends to have served as early as pos- 
sible in the morning. I accordingly did it, and it is now too 
late to attend the afternoon service. I think I cannot em- 
ploy the leisure time thus thrown on my hands better than 
in giving you an account of the commercial catastrophe now 
taking place in this town, which occasioned the singular 
application to me that I have just mentioned. The bubble 
of banking is breaking, and I am very apprehensive that it 
will prove as distressing to this town as that of stock-jobbing 
was about twelve months since at New York. Seven or 
eight failures of considerable consequence have happened 
within these three days, and many more are inevitable I 
think in the course of the ensuing week. The pernicious 
practice of mutual indorsements upon each other's notes has 
been carried as now appears to an extravagant length, and 
is now found to have involved not only the principals, who 
have been converting their loans from the bank into a regular 
trading stock, but many others who have undertaken to be 
their security. The stagnation of trade produced in the fall 
of the year by the smallpox, and very much increased by a 



134 



THE WRITINGS OF [1793 



remarkably open winter, which has not admitted of the 
usual facility of communication with the country upon the 
snow, have undoubtedly accelerated this calamity, which, 
however, would have been the more oppressive the longer 
it would have been deferred. 

These misfortunes will undoubtedly give a degree of 
activity to my particular profession which has not for several 
years been allotted to it. But I shall personally derive but 
very little immediate benefit from it. I see no prospect of 
its adding much to my business at present, and if it should, 
there is no satisfaction in thriving by the misery of others. 

I received last evening your favor with a quotation from 
the Echo, which has been read here, as well as the Hartford 
newscarrier's wit, with pleasure by those who are fond of 
laughing at the follies of our great man.^ The situation of 
our affairs is such, and the passions and rivalries of our 
most conspicuous characters assume an aspect so alarming, 
that we have indeed much to apprehend for the fate of the 
country. It is a subject upon which my mind does not 
dwell with pleasure, and I am the more desirous to keep 
myself altogether unconnected with political topics, because 
my sentiments in general I find are as unpopular as my con- 
duct relative to the town police or to the theatrical questions. 
I have no predilection for unpopularity as such, but I hold 
it much preferable to the popularity of a day, which perishes 
with the transient topic upon which it is grounded ; and 
therefore I persisted in refusing to appear at the anarchical 
dinner which was denominated a civic feast, though I was 
urged strongly by several of my friends to become a sub- 
scriber upon principles of expediency. Those friends dis- 
liked the whole affair quite as much as I did, but thought 
it was necessary to comply with the folly of the day. Upon 

^ Hancock. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 135 

the whole however it appears to me that the celebration 
of that day has had rather an advantageous than an in- 
jurious effect. The specimens of equality exhibited in the 
course of it did not suit the palates of many who had joined 
in the huzzas. The Governor thought it proper to be sick 
and not attend, and I believe has ventured to express his 
disapprobation of the proceedings in several particulars. 
We have Jacobins enough, but in this instance they overshot 
themselves, and shewed their teeth and claws so injudi- 
ciously, as to guard even the weaker members of the com- 
munity against them.^ . . . 

MARCELLUS 2 

At a period, when all the European powers with whom we have 
any considerable commercial intercourse, are involved in war, 
it becomes an interesting question to every American, what line 
of conduct ought to be pursued by the United States as a nation, 
and by their citizens as individuals, in relation to the contending 
parties. The individual must follow the dictates of his own dis- 
cretion, and the path to be pursued by the nation must be pointed 
out by the wisdom of the National Legislation : But upon a subject 
in which all are so deeply interested, it is the right, and in some 
measure the duty of every citizen, to express his opinions with 
decency, but with freedom and sincerity. 

The solution of the question as it respects the country, involves 

1 This "civic feast" is described in the Columbian Centinel, January 26, 30; and 
Massachusetts Mercury, January 26, 1793. It is sketched in McMaster, History 
of the People of the United States, II. 91. 

2 Genet, the first minister from the French Republic to the United States, 
landed at Charleston, South Carolina, April 8. On April 22 the proclamation of 
neutrality was issued in Philadelphia. Adams was one of the earliest to discuss 
the political situation, for Hamilton ("Pacificus") printed his first paper June 29. 

' Columbian Centinel, April 24, 1793. 



136 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

in itself an answer to that which relates to individuals. There 
have indeed been certain suggestions in the public papers, and in 
private circles something similar has been heard, of an intention 
among some of our fellow citizens to arm privateers, and commit 
depredations upon the commerce of one of the parties under 
the authority of another. It is to be hoped that this violation of 
the laws of nature and nations, this buccaneering plan of piratical 
plunder, may not in any instance be carried beyond the airy regions 
of speculation, and may never acquire the consistency of practical 
execution. If the natural obligations of justice are so feeble 
among us, that avarice cannot be restrained from robbery, but 
by the provisions of positive law, if the statute book is to be our 
only rule of morality to regulate the observance of our duties 
towards our fellow creatures, let those whose ideas of equality are 
so very subservient to their private interests, consult the treaties 
between the United States and the several powers now at war, 
which by the constitution of the United States, are declared to be 
"the supreme law of the land," and in the 21st, the 19th and 
the 20th articles of the several treaties of commerce with France, 
Holland and Prussia, they will find, that by taking letters of 
marque or arming privateers with commissions under either 
of the powers against either of the others, they would subject 
themselves to the punishment of pirates. There can be no doubt 
but that a similar act of hostility against any subject of the king 
of Great Britain, would be a direct violation of the 7th article 
of the treaty of peace. If we were not bound by any treaty | 
whatever, with either of the nations, the natural obligation of 
neutrality would operate upon us individually, unless the nation 
should take a decisive part in favor of one of the parties. Every , 
citizen would be legally responsible for all the property w^hich he 
might seize with violence under a commission to which he could 
not be entitled, and if he should preserve himself from the punish- 
ment of piracy, he would be liable to make entire satisfaction for 
all the damage he might occasion, and to restore his ill-acquired 
plunder. 






1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 137 

It is indeed of material importance to the commercial interest 
of this country, that our merchants should show a peculiar degree 
of circumspection in their conduct, because the country becomes at 
a season so critical as this, in some measure responsible for them. 
In the just and honorable pursuit of their legitimate interest, it is 
the duty of the nation to support them with all its force and all 
its authority. In time of war, the subjects of all belligerent powers 
are frequently disposed to violate the rights of neutral nations. 
The master and the crew of a privateer, fitted out and cruising 
for the sole purpose of seizing upon defenceless wealth, and stimu- 
lated by the prospect of a valuable spoil, often feel the full force 
of disappointed rapaciousness, when after a long chase they 
discover that the ship, upon the plunder of whose cargo they had 
already feasted their imaginations, is rescued from their violence 
by the protection of a neutral flag. They are not apt to be nice 
in their distinctions of morality. Their disappointed passions 
often seek a vent against the unarmed opulence which eludes 
their grasps, and they are frequently guilty of insolence, and 
sometimes of oppression towards those who are not in a condition 
to resent their inju tice. In such case the individuals of the 
neutral nation, who suffer in consequence of such lawless pro- 
ceedings, have no remedy but to call upon the sovereign of their 
own country to support them in their demand for satisfaction : 
Should any complaints arising from causes like this become a 
subject of negotiation, between the United States and either of 
the contending parties, it behoves us all, as we value our interests, 
or our reputation, that no occasion to retort a complaint that 
the neutrality was first violated on our part, should be given. In 
order to obtain justice, for any citizen who may suffer by the in- 
iquity of a foreigner, we must disavow in the most decisive manner, 
all acts of iniquity committed by our own citizens, and our govern- 
ment can never have an expectation of gaining a compensation 
for the injured individual, unless they can compel the injuring 
individual to make compensation in his turn. 

To expatiate upon the natural injustice and wickedness of 



138 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

privateering under a foreign commission against a nation at peace 
with us, would be as idle as an attempt "to add a perfume to the 
violet." The practise of privateering, even in its most excusable 
form, between nations formally at war, has been condemned by 
the most amiable and virtuous moralists. In the treaty between 
the United States and the King of Prussia, it is provided that in 
case war should arise between the contracting parties, "All mer- 
chant and trading vessels employed in exchanging the products of 
different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conven- 
iences and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, and 
more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested : 
and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue 
any commission to any private armed vessel, empowering 
them to take or destroy such trading vessels or interrupt such 
commerce." ^ This clause in the treaty, which was I believe the 
first instance in which two great nations have adopted this system 
of benevolence and humanity, has been justly admired and ap- 
plauded ; it was adopted by the late French National Assembly, ,| 
when they declared war against the Emperor of Germany, and 
the real friends of mankind must regret that the policy is abandoned 
at this time, when the war extends to all the great commercial 
nations of Europe. For, if as the poet, with more than poetical 
truth, has said, "War is murder," the plunder of private property, 
the pillage of all the regular rewards of honest industry and 
laudable enterprise, upon the mere pretence of a national contest, 
to the eye of reason and justice, can appear in no other light than 
that of highway robbery. If, however, some apology for the 
practice is to be derived from the uncontrollable laws of necessity, 
or from the iniquitous law of war, certainly there can be no possible 
excuse for those who incur the guilt without being able to plead 
the palliation ; for those who by violating the rights of nations in 
order to obtain a licence for rapine, manifestly show, that it is 
only the lash of the executioner that binds them to the observance 
of their civil and political duties. 

1 Art. XXIII, treaty of 1785. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 139 

IP 

Non nostrum, tantas componere lites. 

Having attempted in a late paper to show that a rigid adherence 
to the system of Neutrality between the European nations now at 
war, is equally the dictate of justice and of policy, to the individual 
citizens of the United States, while the Nation remains neutral, 
the question recurs, what is the line of conduct prescribed to the 
nation itself, at this delicate juncture, by those immutable laws of 
justice and equity, which are equally obligatory to sovereigns and 
to subjects, to republics and to kings. I shall not make any 
consideration of general policy a separate subject of inquiry, 
because I hold it to be one of the most undeniable principles of 
government, that the truest policy of a nation consists in the per- 
formance of its duties. The rights of nations are nothing more 
than an extension of the rights of individuals to the great societies, 
into which the different portions of mankind have been combined ; 
and they are all mediately or immediately derived from the fun- 
damental position which the author of Christianity has taught 
us as an article of religion, and which the revised declaration of 
rights of the National Convention in France have declared, to con- 
tain the essence of liberty. "Liberty,''^ says the new Declaration of 
Rights, ^^ consists in the power of doing whatever is not contrary to the 
rights of others.''^ "Whatsoever," says the Saviour of mankind, "yow 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them^ Let us 
therefore be cautious to do nothing contrary to the rights of others, 
and we shall continue to enjoy and to deserve the blessings of 
freedom. Let us do as we should choose others might do to us, and 
we shall deserve the favors of Heaven. 

If these are the principles upon which our national conduct is to 
be grounded, it will follow, that an impartial and unequivocal 
neutrality between the contending parties is prescribed to us as 
a duty, unless we are bound by some existing contract or stipu- 
lation, to make a common cause with one of them. 

^ Columbian Centinel, May 4, 1793. 



I40 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

I have already said it : The natural state of all nations, with 
respect to one another, is a state of peace — damus petimusque 
vicissim : It is what we have a right to expect from them, and 
for the same reason it is our duty to observe it towards them. In 
addition to this natural obligation, we are bound by express 
treaties with France, England, Holland and Prussia, to observe 
the laws of peace with the subjects of their different governments, 
and we have no right to interfere in their contentions. What- 
ever may be the current of our sentiments, or of our opinions ; 
whatever may be the language suggested by our passions, 
or the wishes inspired by our affections, we are not constituted 
judges of the respective merits of their cause. From a feeling of 
gratitude towards a nation which assisted us in the days of our 
own calamity, we may be disposed to throw a veil over their own 
errors and crimes, and wish them that success which their frantic 
enthusiasm has rendered so improbable. As the descendants of 
Englishmen, we may be willing to lose the memory of all the miseries 
they inflicted upon us in our just struggle against them, and even 
the relics of their resentment, which still refuse the complete ful- 
filment of the treaty of peace, and we may wish them still to retain 
their reputation for successful courage and conduct in war. As 
men, we must undoubtedly lament the effusion of human blood, 
and the mass of misery and distress which is preparing for the 
great part of the civilized world ; but as the citizens of a nation 
at a vast distance from the continent of Europe; of a nation 
whose happiness consists in a real independence, disconnected 
from all European interests and European politics, it is our duty to 
remain, the peaceable and silent, though sorrowful spectators of 
the sanguinary scene. 

With the reasons for neutrality suggested by these considera- 
tions of natural duty and of positive stipulation, a forcible argu- 
ment concurs, derived from our interest. In the general conduct 
of all the commercial European nations, the advantages which 
will be thrown into our hands, and the activity and vigor which 
will be given to every branch of our commerce, are too obvious 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 141 

to need any discussion. As the natural consequence of war, the 
necessities of all the belligerent powers must increase in proportion 
as their means of supply will diminish, and the profits, which 
must infallibly flow to us from their wants, can have no other 
limitation than the extent of our capacity to provide for them. 

With all these inducements to a decided neutrality, let us look 
at the other side of the medal, and see what would be the conse- 
quence of our making ourselves partizans of the contest. First, 
we should be engaged in a quarrel, with the laws of nations against 
us. It would be a violation of our political duties; a departure 
from the principles of national justice, and an express breach of the 
positive stipulations of peace and friendship with the several 
belligerent powers, contained in the treaties which I have already 
mentioned. An act of partiality in favor of either party would 
be an act of perfidy to the other. 

I have so full a confidence in the equity and virtue of my coun- 
trymen, that I should rest the argument on this point, if I had 
not perceived that a contrary system of policy is avowed by men 
of some influence among us, and openly recommended in some of 
the public prints of the day. A system, which professing to arise 
from an extraordinary attachment to the cause of Liberty and 
Equality, may in reality be traced to the common sources of 
private avarice, and private ambition, perhaps at once the cause 
and effect of an implicit devotion to France, and an antipathy to 
England, exceeding the limits of a national resentment. 

To men of this description, arguments derived from the obli- 
gations of natural justice, or of written contract will be perfectly 
nugatory. "The Rights of Man," will be their answer to the one, 
and "Liberty and Equality," to the other. I apply, therefore, 
to a principle of more efficacious operation in their minds, if their 
own interest is in any degree connected with that of their country, 
and ask them what would be the inevitable consequence of a war 
with all Europe, excepting only the present prevailing power of 
France .'' The experience of the late war, would perhaps dis- 
courage an attempt on the part of Great Britain to conquer this 



142 



THE WRITINGS OF [1793 



Continent, but we have a sea-coa?t of twelve hundred miles every- 
where open to invasion, and where is the power to protect it ? 
We have a flourishing commerce, expanding to every part of the 
globe, and where will it turn when excluded from every market of 
the earth ? We depend upon the returns of that commerce for 
many necessaries of life, and when those returns shall be cut off, 
where shall we look for the supply ? We are in a great measure 
destitute of the defensive apparatus of war, and who will provide 
us with the arms and ammunition that will be indispensable ? We 
feel severely at this moment, the burden of our public debt, and 
where are the funds to support us in the dreadful extremity to 
which our own madness and iniquity would reduce us ? Not 
to mention the infallible destruction of our finances, and the na- 
tional bankruptcy, which the friends of the system I am combating, 
would perhaps welcome as a blessing. Are these. Sir, imaginary 
apprehensions, or are they objects of trivial moment ? Our 
national existence may depend upon the event of our councils in 
the present crisis, and to advise us to engage voluntarily in the 
war, is to aim a dagger at the heart of the country. 

IIP 

Omnium primum hiatus tueri publicam fidem. Liv. 

It has been inquired by citizens anxious for the welfare of the 
country, and aware of the distress to which it must inevitably 
be reduced by an European war, whether we have not already 
pledged our faith so far as to preclude us from any present con- 
sideration of convenience or inconvenience, and whether we are 
not by our own voluntary engagement bound to take the part of 
the present government in France, especially in case the W'est 
India islands should be attacked by Great Britain. 

By the eleventh article of the Treaty of Alliance with France, 
the United States "guaranty to his most Christian Majesty, the 
possessions of the crown of France in America." - But the course 
of human events has either totally absolved us, or at least sus- 

1 Columbian Centinel, May ii, 1793. ^-pj-eaty of 1778. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 143 

pended the obligation of this clause, and it cannot be made even 
a plausible pretext for involving us in the present war. My 
reasons for this opinion are, 

1. That the guaranty is to his most Christian Majesty, 0/ the 
possessions of the crown of France. I ask, who is at this time his 
most Christian Majesty ? A part of the French nation, and all 
the other powers of Europe will answer, he is the son or the brother 
of the late Louis the XVIth. The National Convention, and the 
present republic of France will say there is no such man. The 
ofRce and all its powers have been extinguished in the blood of the 
person with whom your contract was made. If the article binds 
us to either of the parties, the question which of the two is entitled 
to claim the performance, is now a question to be settled by the 
event of a civil war, and neither party can call upon us to decide 
it for them. 

2. That supposing the revolutions of France are now completed, 
and a republic firmly established, it may be doubtful whether they 
have not by their change of government, dissolved this clause of 
the treaty : I know it is a general principle of the laws of nations, 
that the rights and obligations of treaties survive the internal 
revolutions of government, and therefore that the republic of 
France may be entitled to the benefits of engagements contracted 
with the former Monarch. But to this rule there are many 
exceptions ; the first Constituent Assembly were so fully of this 
opinion that they thought the nation absolved from all such 
treaties previously made, as might be injurious to their interests, 
and the present government have extended the principle much 
further, when [as] a justification for opening the Scheldt, contrary to 
the positive and express stipulation of many treaties, they have 
formally denied the obligation of any compact, which was con- 
trary to the natural Rights of Men. Upon speculative principles 
it may be very questionable how far the sovereign control of a 
French Republic, over islands at three thousand miles distance from 
them is consistent with such natural rights, and it would be diffi- 
cult to mark the distinction which should prohibit every act of 



144 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

jurisdiction exercised by one nation over a river flowing through 
the territories of another, and at the same time allow a supreme 
authority over colonies placed by the hand of nature at so wide a 
distance from the metropolis. The possessions of the crozun of 
France, as guaranteed by our Treaty to his most Christian Majesty 
appear to me to have formed a part of that Constitution of govern- 
ment which then existed in France ; they were a part of the mon- 
archy, and under the new government they can no longer be 
considered as possessions, in the same sense in which they were 
understood when the United States bound themselves to the 
guaranty. 

3. Should both of those ground for the opinion I am supporting 
be considered as erroneous, and the clause in question be held as 
binding us to the French Republic, in the same manner as it 
formerly did to the King, it remains to inquire what was intended 
by the guaranty, and what are the duties which it has prescribed 
to us "i During the administration of the royal government, had 
the authority of the sovereign been guided by the maxims of 
speculative freedom or of practical tyranny ; had he provoked 
a rebellion in the islands, by oppressing the planters or by liberat- 
ing their slaves ; the guaranty in the treaty would not have bound 
us to assist him with our blood and treasures, in enforcing an 
absurd and unnatural Government against the perpetual resist- 
ances which it would necessarily provoke. Had the late King of 
France, like other kings of whom we read in history, veiling his 
insatiate ambition, under some specious pretence of glory, of 
dignity or of safety, declared a wanton and unjustifiable war 
against any or all of the commercial nations in Europe, and had 
his possessions in America been conquered by his enemies in the 
course of such a war, he never could have called upon the United 
States by virtue of this guaranty, to repair the injuries of his 
folly, and to sacrifice themselves in support of his pernicious 
projects. It is unnecessary to fatigue the public with the pedantry 
of quotations from the writers upon natural and political Law, 
but it may be laid down as an universal principle, that no stipu- 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 145 

lation contained in a treaty, can ever oblige one nation to adopt 
or support the folly or injustice of another. In applying this 
principle, it becomes necessary to observe, that the administra- 
tion of the French government over their colonies, since the first 
revolution of 1789 has been such as to keep almost all their islands 
in a constant state of rebellion and civil war ; by the former of 
these calamities the slaves have been united against their masters; 
by the latter the masters have been divided against each other. 
From the chaotic mass of human passions, a collection of all the 
most violent and inflammable elements has been selected and 
combined together ; the torch of the furies has been applied to the 
composition ; and the miserable islanders have been the victims of 
the fatal explosion. 

To such a state of desperation have these devoted colonies been 
reduced, that a formal deputation, as we are informed by the public 
papers, have solicited for them the protection of the British 
government ; and we are now told that this protection has been 
promised ; that the King of Great Britain has agreed to take 
possession of those colonies and to hold them in trust for his most 
Christian Majesty, the power to whom the letter of our guaranty 
has promised the assistance of the United States. An arbitrary 
and oppressive system of administration compelled us to renounce 
the authority of Great Britain, and France assisted us to main- 
tain our honorable warfare. A similar evil has driven some of 
the French colonies to a similar remedy; one of them has even 
attempted a Declaration of Independence, and all the others would 
doubtless have done the same, were they not profoundly sensible 
that the time is not yet come, for the Lion to lie down with the 
Lamb, and that the justice of their cause would avail them but 
little against the powerful injustice of their oppressors. But 
surely there would be something singularly absurd and iniquitous, 
to see the United States support the French in a plan of oppressive 
administration over their colonies, as a reward for rescuing them 
from the oppression of Great Britain. It would be such a total 
subversion of all moral and political consistency, such a cove- 



146 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

nant between virtue and vice, such a coalition of liberal free- 
dom with despotic tyranny, as can scarcely be imagined without a 
confusion of ideas, or expressed without an absurdity of language. 
4. The last ground upon which I consider this guaranty as 
dissolved or at least suspended, is, that by the act of the French 
government, it has been rendered impracticable. They have 
declared war against all the naval powers of Europe. What the 1 
event of that war will be, it is not given to man to foretell ; but I 
we cannot take a part with the French Republic, without uniting 
all the rest of Europe against us ; which upon every rational cal- 
culation of probability, would be dooming ourselves to inevitable 
ruin and destruction. We are therefore commanded by a law, 
which supercedes all others, by that uncontrolable law of nature, 
which is paramount to all human legislation, or compact, to remain 
at peace, and to content ourselves with wishing that laureled Vic- 
tory may sit upon the sword of justice, and that smooth success 
may always be strewed before the feet of virtuous Freedom. 

FROM CHARLES ADAMS 

July 29, [1793.] 
My dear Brother : 

I received the copies of your oration ^ by Mr. Atkinson, for 
which I give you my own and the thanks of my friends. Un- 
willing to trust my own partial judgment upon the performance, 
I have endeavored to collect the opinions of my friends here, 
who are most remarkable for their taste, and my own ideas have 
been justified by the universal applause which has been bestowed 
upon your oration. I cannot but admire the prudence which you 
have observed in steering so cautiously between the Scylla and 
Charybdis of public opinion, and surely it was your duty to offend no 
one in a performance of this kind. In a late letter you observe that 

1 Published with the title: An/Oration,/pronounced/July 4th, 1793,/at the/ 
Request of the Inhabitants/of the/Town of Boston ;/ in Commemoration/of the/ 
Anniversary of/American Independence. . . . Boston:/ Printed by Benjamin 
Edes & Son. m, dcc, xchi. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 147 

some of my friends think me too strenuous upon the wrong side. I 
must be thought so, if I deny a single democratic principle. Every 
man who now ventures to disapprove of a single measure of the 
French, is according to modern language an aristocrat, and I had 
rather submit to the imputation, than indiscriminately to approve 
of every transaction of that nation. God forbid that I should ever 
become the advocate of tyranny, whether exercised by a single or 
a many headed monster. How strenuous are the party in Phila- 
delphia to engage us in a war ! What abuse and reviling con- 
stantly fills that mint of defamation, the National Gazette ! How 
determined should be the conduct of the executive ! Surely the 
conduct of a foreign minister is reprehensible who talks of appeal- 
ing to the people from the decision of the first magistrate. If 
ever there was a time when firmness was required, it is now. What 
do you think of the decision of Judge Peters in your part of the 
world ? I would ask one question. Suppose a French ship should 
come up to the wharves of New York, and carry away to Phila- 
delphia twenty or thirty British merchantmen. Could our Court 

r. of Admiralty have jurisdiction of it ? We have had a case similar 

n to that of the ship William, before our District Court. It was 
argued on the part of the libellants last week, and more ingenious 

I and curious argument I never heard in a court. Messrs. Troup and 
Harison showed themselves to the greatest advantage. To be sure 
the concluding quotation of Mr. H., applied to Judge Duane, could 

^' not but raise a smile on the countenance of those who know his 
character. He is suspected of leaning toward the opinion of 
Judge Peters, for whom he has a great veneration ; but I am in- 
clined to believe that after the argument, and the application of 
the verse from Horace, " Justum et tenacem," etc., he will not have 
obstinacy enough to decide similarly. We daily expect a French 
fleet in this port. I dread the moment. We have many turbulent 
people in this city, who would wish to take advantage of such an 
event. We have already been witnesses to the commencement of 
very tumultuous proceedings. A writer in the Philadelphia 
papers, Pacificus, has claimed the attention of the public. I am 



148 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

happy to find most men of character accord with the sentiments of 
this writer. Who he is, I know not. The Secretary of the Treasury, 
amongst us, has the credit of being the author. The pieces would 
not disgrace his pen. Entre nous, it seems to me rather surprising 
that the Vice President has not been called to Philadelphia. Surely 
his council is necessary in the present circumstances of this country. 
Pray explain to me. You may have a better opportunity of know- 
ing the reasons than myself or the multitudes who ask me the 
question. My respects and love to all friends. 

Yours affectionately, 

Charles Adams. 

COLUMBUS 

• •••••• 

It is indeed a novelty in the diplomatic world, to see the envoy 
of a foreign nation assuming a character like this. The French 
nation have been justly celebrated for their skill in the cabinet; 

1 Columbian Centinel, November 30, 1793. The correspondence between Genet 
and the Secretary of State is in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, !• 
141-148. Genet's despatches to his own government are in Turner, Correspondence 
of the French Ministers to the United States, 1791-1797 (American Hist. Associa- 
tion Report, 1903). 

" Washington was indeed under obligations to him [J. Q. A.I, for turning the tide 
of sentiment against Genet, and he was sensible of it and grateful for it. The 
enthusiasm for Genet and France and the French Revolution was, at this time, 
almost universal throughout the United States, but in Pennsylvania, and especially 
in Philadelphia, the rage was irresistible. ... J. Q. Adams' writings first turned 
this tide; and the yellow fever completed the salvation of Washington. . . . Not 
all Washington's ministers, Hamilton and Pickering included, could have written 
those papers, which were so fatal to Genet. Washington saw it, and felt his obli- 
gations. He took great pains to find out their author. The first notice I had of 
his design to appoint my son to a mission abroad, was from his Secretary of State 
Randolph, who told me he had been ordered to enquire of the members of Congress, 
and others, concerning the life and character of J. Q. Adams, and, he was, that day 
to report in favor of his appointment." John Adams to William Cunningham, Jr., 
October 13, 1808. Cunnijigham Correspondence, 35-37. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAiMS 149 

they have produced many statesmen, whose talents have marked 
them out as models for the ministers of all other nations ; but this 
was an expedient which never occurred to the imagination of any 
of them. The glory of the discovery was reserved for Genet alone, 
and the future d'Ossat's, d'Avaux's, d'Estrade's, and Torcy's of 
his country, may look back with reverence to him as the original 
inventor of the science of typographical negotiation. 

In a country where genuine freedom is enjoyed, it is unquestion- 
ably the right of every individual citizen, to express without control 
his sentiments upon public measures and the conduct of public 
men. Because the rulers of freemen, being only the dispositaries 
of their power, are accountable to them for the execution of the 
trust, and the treasure of public liberty being common property, 
every individual is authorised and required to contribute his 
assistance for its security. This privilege ought not, however, in 
common cases, to be extended to the conduct of foreign ministers. 
So long as the agent of a friendly nation confines himself within 
the circle of his own rights, however offensive the demands he is 
instructed to make may be, the pretensions of his country ought 
not to be a subject of personal animadversion upon him. The 
Ambassador is amenable to his constituents for the execution of 
his trust, and even in an enemy the character should be respected. 
But if the Ambassador on his part descends from that station ; if 
he publicly damns with one dash of his pen, all the known rules and 
customs established in the intercourse of nations, if he openly dis- 
claims all submission to the authority, and respect for the opinions 
of the writers who have been by the consent of all civilized nations, 
acknowledged to contain the true principles of national justice and 
equity; if he professes loudly a determination to appeal from a 
constitutional to an unconstitutional tribunal, in the country 
where he resides ; if he threatens to negotiate with the people, 
without any authority or commission from his own sovereign 
for that purpose, if he is constantly pouring forth in the public 
prints, a stream of abuse, under the shape of Letters, of Addresses, 
of Remonstrances, and Protests, against the very government to 



ISO 



THE WRITINGS OF [1793 



which he was accredited, he thereby renounces all the privileges 
which surrounded his public character, and makes himself ob- 
noxious to every feather in the wing of wit, and every shaft in the 
quiver of satire. . . . 

"And I, too, am a scribbler." I, too, as a citizen of the United 
States have the right to express my opinion upon the pretensions 
of Citizen Genet. Numerous as have been the animadversions 
of the public upon his conduct, there are yet some points of view, 
in which it has not been sufficiently considered. I have no personal 
acquaintance with the man, nor feel any personal resentment or 
animosity against him. My sentiments for his country, like those 
of every true American, are those of a partial attachment; but 
as in my opinion his actions bespeak him the most implacable 
and dangerous enemy to the peace and happiness of my country, 
I hold it to be a moral and religious duty, to support the opinion 
with the reasons upon which it is grounded. 

Ill 

When the Minister from the French Republic declared his 
determination to appeal from the decision of the regular and 
constituted authority, upon the construction of certain treaties, to 
the people of America, the first sentiments which the declaration 
excited in the breasts of that people, was the spontaneous emotion 
of the heart. They considered it as an insolent outrage offered 
to the man, who was deservedly the object of their grateful affec- 
tion ; as an insult upon the character of their common friend and 
benefactor, and they spurned the attempt to degrade their Hero, 
with scorn and disdain. "The people," says Junius, " are seldom 
mistaken in their opinions, in their sentiments they are never 
wrong." When the Americans were rudely called upon to pro- 
nounce upon the conduct of the patriot, whose disinterested virtues 
and superior talents had been employed in their service through 
all the vicissitudes of fortune ; whose generous magnanimity had 
supported them in the most distressing moments of national 

1 Columbian Centinel, December 4, 1793. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 151 

depression ; whose expanded patriotism had participated with 
rapture in the most bhssful scenes of national exultation ; the 
glory of their war, and the ornament of their peace ; when a 
beardless foreigner, whose name was scarcely enrolled upon the 
catalogue of Liberty ; a petulant stripling, whose commission 
from a friendly power was his only title to their respect, and 
whose only merit was his country, presumed to place himself in 
opposition to the father of their country, and to call for their appro- 
bation to support his claims, they viewed the application as an 
indignity offered to themselves, and even before their judgment 
had deliberated upon the merits of the case, they rejected the 
arrogant pretensions of the foreigner, with pointed indignation. 

When they came, however, to consider the transaction indepen- 
dent of any reference to their own prepossessions and feelings 
they immediately perceived, that the earlier decision of their 
judgment was perfectly conformable to the dictates of their hearts 
and that the voice of reason and justice was in exact unison with 
that of their affections. They had delegated to the Congress of 
the United States the power to regulate their commercial inter- 
course with foreign nations. They had delegated to the President, 
the power of negotiating with the ministers of foreign power, 
and with the concurrence of the Senate, to make treaties with 
them. They had specially directed their President in the Consti- 
tution, which defined his authority and prescribed his duties, 
to "take care, that the laws be faithfully executed ;" and, if, in the 
course of his administration, a difference of opinion upon the mean- 
ing of a national compact should arise between him and the agent 
of a foreign power, they had not reserved to themselves the right 
of judging between them. Nor did they imagine, that they had 
thereby imparted to their Chief Magistrate, a power in the smallest 
degree arbitrary. For if the construction, upon which his measures 
were grounded, should be erroneous, they had provided a judiciary 
power, competent to correct his mistakes. If he proceeded upon a 
wilful and treacherous misinterpretation, they had secured the 
means of removing him from his office by impeachment; but 



152 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

in either case, they had retained no appelate jurisdiction to them- 
selves. It was therefore clearly demonstrated, that the inten- 
tion of the Minister, was no less hostile to the Constitution, 
than insulting to the government of the Union. Nor was the 
measure of the Envoy supported by a shadow of right on his part. 
A foreign Agent, his official powers were circumscribed within the 
limits of his commission ; and his right to negotiate was only 
commensurate with his credentials. Where then was the com- 
mission ; where were the credentials, which authorised him to 
treat with the people of America, through any other medium than 
that of their government ? He had not, he could not have any at 
all, and the impotent menace of the Minister could serve no other 
purpose, than to betray the ignorance and heedless rashness of 
the man. 

The few remaining partizans of the citizen Minister among us 
were aware of the inauspicious operation, which this declaration 
would have upon the public mind, and struggled with fruitless 
endeavor, to extricate him from the net which his own folly had 
woven ; they shuffled and equivocated ; they quibbled and denied ; 
but their ingenuity could not keep pace with his impetuosity. 
No sooner did their toilsome industry raise a feeble rampart in 
his defence, than his own violence would immediately batter it 
down. Did they venture to dispute the fact ^ He was ready 
to produce "damning proof" against himself, and with many 
self-admiring commendations upon his own republican frankness 
and energy, to silence every friendly sceptic, by an avowal of 
his guilt. Did they strain every nerve to create a distinction in 
his behalf, and explain his intention of appeal, to be merely an 
insult upon the person of the Chief Magistrate, and not upon 
the government of America? He was sure to disclaim so frail a 
discrimination, and to declare that he was incapable of disrespect 
to the "Hero of Liberty," but that his threat was pointed at the 
government of the Union. It was in vain to search for precedents 
of diplomatic impudence, to give a color of authority to his proceed- \ 
ings ; worm-eaten records of elder times, the musty prescriptions of ' 



17931 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 153 

superannuated wisdom, could afford no measure for the mighty 
grasp of his aspiring ambition. The learned sages of national 
jurisprudence, whose indefatigable labors had compiled a system 
of rules for the conduct of sovereign powers, founded upon the 
immutable laws of natural justice, and the immemorial practice of 
civilized nations, had too long been rewarded for their exertions, 
by the veneration of ages. They had all written in chains, and 
could therefore be no guides for him who had been so recently let 
loose. 

The appeal is therefore made. Addresses to the Republicans 
of New York; Letters to the President of the Union; Letters to 
Citizen Duplaine, to General Moultrie; Letters to the Secretary of 
State; Letters to the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts ; 
Protests against the revocation of Citizen Duplaine's exequatur, 
"and all the weapons of a wordy war," crowd in rapid succession 
upon the public prints; as if the judgment of the people, like the 
kingdom of Heaven, were to be taken by violence. But though 
the Minister "can call spirits from the vasty deep," yet it 
is beyond the reach of his magic, to "make them come 
when he calls for them." The people hear his ravings, with the 
same indifference, that they hear the roaring of the ocean on 
the beach. It is the evidence of a tempest at a distance, 
which heightens their enjoyment of the serene tranquility of their 
own hemisphere. The Ambassador finding this attempt lately to 
fail, though baffled, does not appear to be disconcerted : his original 
and inventive genius multiplies with amazing facility the American 
Jurisdictions, and in the fury and whirlwind of his passions for 
appealing, he appeals not only to the people of America^ but to the 
Congress of the Union, and to the Legislature of Massachusetts 
also. Appeal at any rate he must; and as he has already been 
acknowledged to be the first typographical negotiator, he may 
with equal propriety be admitted to the claim of the first Minister 
oj Appeals upon record. 

Waiving for the present any observations upon the two last of 
these appeals, which are equally unwarrantable with the first; 



154 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

and setting aside the constitutional objection to the first, which 
has already been the subject of some of the preceding reflections ; I 
must now request your indulgence, Mr. Russell, with a few remarks 
upon the mode in which the Minister has conducted his appeal to 
the people, and upon the wisdom of the constitutional policy, which 
has entrusted the exclusive right of political communication with 
foreign powers to the government of the Union. 

The declaration of the Ambassador, was understood, at the 
time, as meaning, that he would raise an insurrection of the 
people against the measures of the government. It could not 
easily admit of any other construction, because insurrection is 
the only method whereby the people can reverse the decisions of 
their government. If however any doubt could be entertained of 
the meaning conveyed by the expression, the uniform tenor of every 
measure adopted by the Minister since that period, serves to 
confirm the opinion which was formed at first. The numerous 
newspaper publications which have been already mentioned, are so 
many addresses to the people of America; else why is the corre- 
spondence of a foreigner intruded upon the American public t All 
those letters, addressed to particular individuals, that pretended 
answer to a complimentary address from the republicans of Nezv 
York, that doughty protest against the dismission of citizen 
Duplaine, crammed like a loaded blunderbuss, with all the future 
vengeance of the French republic, all must be considered as the 
mere vehicles of sedition against the government of the Union. 
Else why are a few citizens of New York addressed as constituting 
the whole American Republic t And why is an official, though 
very irregular communication to the chief magistrate of this 
commonwealth, immediately published in the newspapers, by the 
authority of the protestor, before anything has been transacted 
upon it ? No doubt they are all meant as appeals to the people 
of America; appeals to their generosity, appeals to their 
gratitude, but above all, appeals to their fears. The peo- 
ple of America, however, are not easily terrified or cajoled 
into measures apparently destructive to their own happiness. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 155 

The resentment of the whole nation was not easily to be excited 
without a cause, against a government which was daily gaining 
upon all their affections by promoting their happiness. Mr. 
Genet therefore endeavors to support his failing influence by con- 
necting himself and his interests with a particular party of Ameri- 
can citizens, separate from the whole body of the people : a 
party professing republican sanctity beyond the rest of their 
fellow-citizens, and scarcely endeavoring to disguise sentiments, 
hostile to the national government of the country. How far this 
connection has proceeded, and whether any regular plan of opera- 
tions has been concerted between these new associates, cannot 
be fully ascertained ; but we have known an American jury, com- 
pelled by the clamors of a collected multitude, to acquit a prisoner 
without the unanimity required by our laws. We have heard of 
printed caricatures circulating through Philadelphia, representing 
the President of the Union, and a Judge of the Supreme Court, 
with guillotine suspended over their heads. We have seen twenty 
citizens of Boston, all of them inoffensive, many of them personally 
respectable, held up as objects of detestation, to the crew of a 
French armed vessel, and posted at the mast; we have known a 
citizen of New York, and a member of their Legislature, threat- 
ened by an anonymous assassin with inevitable death, for ex- 
pressing with the freedom of an American, his opinion upon the 
proceedings of the Alinister ; and we now witness the formation of a 
lengthening chain of democratic societies, assuming to themselves 
the exercise of privileges, which belong only to the whole people, 
and under the semblance of a warmer zeal for the cause of liberty, 
than the rest of the people, tacitly preparing to control the oper- 
ations of the government and dictate laws to the country. Here- 
tofore, in the most exasperated times of our political dissentions, 
upon occasions when the public mind had been raised to the 
highest pitch of irritation, the sacred obligations of a jury, have 
always been preserved inviolate, and no American ever thought 
of giving a bias to their decisions, by the menace of external 
violence; as little would an American villain have thought of 



156 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

the guillotine as an instrument of punishment. The proscription 
of our citizens under the designation of aristocrats was evidently 
effected by a combination of foreign habits with domestic malice. 
Even the expedient of threatening assassination by anonymous 
letters, was I believe unprecedented among us : And as to the 
democratic societies, they are so perfectly affiliated to the Parisian 
Jacobins, that their origin from a common parent cannot possibly 
be mistaken. These symptoms never originated in the healthy 
constitution of American freedom ; they are all indications of an 
imported distemper, a distemper in comparison with which, if it 
should spread over the continent, the pestilence which has so 
lately depopulated a sister city, and called for the exertions of all 
our tenderest sympathies, was a public blessing. 

To divide in order to govern, has been one of the favorite 
maxims of political villany, ever since the relative stations of 
tyrant and slave have been the fashion of the world. Every 
public measure of the French Minister, since the profession of 
his resolution to appeal, may be traced to the policy of arming one 
part of America against the other. His intended application to 
Congress to pass his official conduct under their examination 
militates against all the principles which he has professed as much 
as against the American constitution ; but he expects it will furnish 
him with an opportunity to "place under the inspection of every 
member, his instructions, his correspondence, his conferences," and 
if the whole body, in imitation of their constituents should turn 
their ear from the voice of the charmer, some individuals may per- 
haps be found among them, who will listen with complacency. 
If he cannot corrupt the sacred fountain of legislation, he hopes at 
least to poison some of the streams which flow from it. If he can- 
not make the Congress itself subservient to his factious purposes, he 
expects at least to inflame the divisions, which have naturally 
arisen from the collision of opinions and interests in an assembly 
of freemen. By dividing the parts, he hopes to control the whole. 

The same disposition is discovered in his application to the 
commander in chief of the Commonwealth, and in his demand that 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 157 

the Legislature of Massachusetts should suspend their legislative 
functions to sit as a court of judication upon the official conduct 
of Duplaine. He could not imagine that our general court had 
forgotten the interdiction pronounced by the constitution of the 
state, against the exercise on their part of any judicial powers, 
other than those which are necessarily involved in the execution of 
their legislative duties : — But the nice and delicate interstructure 
of our general and particular governments had not escaped his 
penetration. He saw two mighty powers participating in large 
portions of the American sovereignty. He perceived that although 
they had been skillfully contrived to co-operate in conducting 
the affairs of the people, yet that the several proportions of the 
public authority had not been distributed between them with such 
perfect accuracy, as to leave their respective rights in every in- 
stance unquestionable. Had not his acquaintance with the 
operations of the human heart informed him of the natural 
tendency which two separate and concurrent powers must have 
to mutual hostility, a recent occurrence which has appeared since 
his arrival in America, might have taught him that when ^Utvo 
authorities are up; neither supreme; confusion may he most easily 
introduced into the gap, to take the one by the other." From a com- 
parative view of all these transactions, it appears therefore clear, 
as the noon-day beam, that the intention of the Ambassador has 
been to lay hold of every prejudice, to fasten upon every passion, 
which could be raised in opposition to the government, and to 
weaken the force of United America, by placing its component 
parts in hostile array against each other. 

And now. Sir, do not the consequences of this foreign usurpation 
force themselves with irresistible conviction upon the heart of 
every American, who feels interested in the independence of his 
country ? Among the nations of antiquity, the Athenians were 
equally distinguished for the freedom of their government, the 
mildness of their laws, the sagaciousness of their understanding, 
and the urbanity of their manners. Their Constitution was 
purely democratic, and their penal laws were few; but the bare 



158 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

appearance of a stranger in the assemblies of the people, they 
made punishable with death, from a deep and well-grounded 
conviction, that of all the dangers which encompass the liberties 
of a republican State, the intrusion of a foreign influence into 
the administration of their affairs, is the most alarming, and 
requires the opposition of the severest caution. The American 
Constitution was framed upon the same principles, and provides 
with equal vigilance, though in a different form, against the same 
evil. It has entrusted with punctilious nicety all the political 
intercourse of the country, with other nations, to the several 
departments of the national government. It does not permit 
any of the States upon any terms whatever, to enter into a treaty, 
alliance, or confederation ; nor without the consent of Congress 
so much as to enter into any agreement or compact with a foreign 
power. And if the wisdom of this provision needed any proof in 
addition to the whole tenor of human history, the train of events 
which is the subject of these remarks would support it, with 
''confirmation strong as proof of holy zvrit." 

In a state of civil and political liberty, parties are to the public 
body, what the passions are to the individual. And as the passions 
are said to be the elements of life, so the animated and vivifying 
spirit of party seems to be essential to the existence of genuine 
freedom. Like the passions, too, it is a prolifick source of misery, 
as well as of enjoyment : Like them it requires a severe and 
continual exertion of restraint and regulation, to prevent its 
breaking out into excesses destructive to the Constitution. It can 
be no subject of lamentation to a rational mind, to perceive the 
political differences which arise among our own citizens. Even 
the degree of warmth which mingles itself in our civil discussions, 
is an inconvenience necessarily connected with the enjoyment of 
our most valuable rights ; the candidates for popular favor may 
endeavor to further their personal views, by standing forth as 
the advocates and champions of the public interest, and diversify 
their claims in proportion to the diversity of public opinions ; the 
people suffer no detriment from their animosities ; and the general 



17931 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 159 

welfare is perhaps promoted, by placing the jealousy of one patriot 
as a guard over the ambition of another. But here let it rest. 
The interference of foreigners upon any pretence whatever, in 
the dissensions of fellow-citizens, must be as inevitably fatal to 
the liberties of the State, as the admission of strangers to arbitrate 
upon the domestic differences of man and wife is destructive to 
the happiness of a private family. If the partizans of any par- 
ticular faction cease to rely upon their own talents and services 
to support their influence among their country men, and link 
themselves in union with an external power, the principles of self- 
defence, the instinct of self-preservation itself, will suggest a 
similar connection to their opponents; whichever of the party 
nominally prevails, the whole country is really enslaved ; alter- 
nately the sport of every caprice, that directs the conduct of two 
foreign sovereigns, alternately the victim of every base intrigue 
which foreign hatred and jealousy may disguise under the mask of 
friendship and benevolence. 

Is this a condition tolerable to the imagination of American 
freemen .'* Is this a state for which the country has, with such 
glorious exertions, strained at every nerve, and bled at every vein, 
in throwing ofi" the shameful fetters of a foreign bondage t Was 
it worthy of the toils which our sages, and our heroes endured .'' 
Was it worthy of the generous and heroic self-devotion, which 
offered the slaughtered thousands of our friends and brethren, as a 
willing sacrifice at the holy altar of American Independence, to be 
made the miserable bubbles of foreign speculation, to be blown like 
feathers to and fro as the varying breath of foreign influence should 
be directed : to be bandied about from one nation to another, 
subservient to the purposes of their mutual resentments, and 
played with as the passive instruments of their interests and 
passions ? Perish the American ! whose soul is capable of sub- 
mitting to such a degrading servitude 1 Perish the American, 
whose prostituted heart could forsake the genuine purity of our 
national worship, and ofi"er at a foreign shrine the tribute of his 
slavish adoration 1 



i6o THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

It was to eradicate, as far as human skill could effect, a weed so 
noxious to our political soil ; it was to deprive the honourable spies 
from foreign nations of the means of tampering with particular 
portions of the American people, that the policy of their national 
Constitution confined their agency to the government of the 
Union. Without attempting to involve ourselves in the mazes of 
ancient history, let us attend only to the occurrences which have 
happened within our own recollection. If we inquire what is the 
cause which has been within a quarter of a century, fatal to the 
Liberties of Sweden, of Geneva, of Holland, and of Poland, the an- 
swer will be one and the same. It was the association of internal 
faction, and external power; it was the interference of other 
nations in their domestic divisions; and if, while all these terrible 
examples of national humiliation and misery are staring us in the 
face, we behold a foreign Agent among ourselves, violating the 
spirit and intention of our Constitution, and pursuing every 
measure which can tend to involve us in the same ruin, and add 
us to the melancholy catalogue of subjugated freemen; while we 
drop a tear to the memory of their Liberty, let us remain firm and 
immoveably faithful to our own ; and remember that the eye of 
the basilisk is less to be dreaded, than the designs of such a man. 

IIP 

The letter from the Minister of the French Republic to the 
Secretary of State, relative to the revocation of Duplaine's exe- 
quatur, has been a fruitful topic of speculation to the American 
public. The mind is scarcely capable of conceiving, nor the 
language of expressing, a sentiment of disgust and indignation, 
but what has been liberally bestowed upon this singular ebullition 
of diplomatic frenzy. Even the most strenuous advocates of our 
dependence upon France have at length been compelled to separate 
the cause of the country from that of the man, and to abandon the 
justification of the representative, while they still affect to dread 
the resentment of his constituents. They pretend to think that 

* Columbian Centind, December 7, 11, and 14, 1793. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS i6i 

j the government of France will support the extravagance and 
violence of the Minister ; that they will countenance his excesses 
which his warmest American friends dare not attempt even to 
extenuate, and that although the forms of his proceeding do 

\ not admit of palliation or excuse ; yet the substance of his ob- 
jections against Duplaine's dismission was without founda- 
Ition, as the President of the United States was not expressly 
authorized by the constitution to revoke the exequatur of a French 
Vice-Consul. 

It is by no means my intention to intrude myself unauthorized, 
unthought of, and uncalled for, upon the public, as the champion 
or defender of the President's measures. I could have wished it 
were possible that an examination of the Ambassador's conduct and 
pretensions, might have been made altogether independent of any 
reference to the proceedings of our own government. Because 
on the one hand it is so easy to attribute sinister motives to a 
political writer, that I should have been desirous to avoid any dis- 
cussion which might he suspected of originating in private purposes ; 
and on the other, being totally unconnected with the illustrious 
character at the head of the union, and with the government over 
which he presides, I can reason on the propriety of their measures 
only from what is publicly known, and may possibly contribute 
to weaken the effect of their authority, by an attempt to support 
it upon the grounds which they perhaps would disclaim. A good 
cause is often injured by an unskilful defence, and an unsuccessful 
effort always lessens the facility of a practical operation. But in 
this instance the refutation of Mr. Genet's absurdities necessarily 
involves a consideration of the question in which they originated ; 
and the evidence of his folly cannot be produced without bearing 
testimony to the wisdom of his opponents. I must therefore be per- 
mitted to take an enlarged view of the subject, and in animadvert- 
ing upon the strange and novel principles advanced by the 
Ambassador, to make some cursory observations upon the prin- 
ciples against which he has declared such relentless war. 

In the month of June last, Antoine Charbonet Duplaine 

M 



i62 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

received from the President of the United States an exequatur 
recognizing him as Vice-Consul, for the Republic of France, within 
the States of New Hampshire^ Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 
and declaring him free to exercise and enjoy such functions, powers 
and privileges, as are allowed to Vice-Consuls of the French Re- 
public, by the laws, treaties, and conventions in that case made and 
provided. 

On the tenth day of October last, the President, by letters 
patent under the seal of the United States, did wholly revoke and 
annul the above mentioned exequatur, and declared the same to be 
absolutely null and void from that day forward. 

The reason assigned by the President for this revocation, in 
the letters patent, is "that the said Duplaine having under color 
of his said office committed sundry encroachments and infractions 
on the laws of the land, and particularly having caused a vessel 
to be rescued with an armed force out of the custody of an officer 
of justice, who had arrested the same by process from his court, it 
was therefore no longer fit nor consistent with the obedience 
due to the laws, that the said Duplaine should be permitted 
to continue in the exercise and enjoyment of the said functions, 
powers, and privileges." 

It is this revocation of which Mr. Genet in his letter to the Sec- 
retary of State, by a well chosen expression, hastens to declare 
that he does not acknowledge the validity. The reasons that he 
gives for his hasty declaration are, "that the Constitution of the 
United States has not given the President the right of exercising 
this authority ; and that it can be exerted only by the sovereign of 
the agent, or by the one to which he is sent." He therefore demands 
of the President, to procure an examination by the Legislature, 
representing the sovereign people of Massachusetts, of the conduct of 
Citizen Duplaine, and modestly recommends to the President's 
imitation his own (that is the Minister's) example in demanding 
of Congress an examination of his conduct. He insists with the 
more confidence upon this step, because a popular and virtuous 
Jury, three times threw out the complaint of the Attorney for the 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 163 

District of Boston, against Citizen Duplaine, who, he says, was 
finally acquitted in the most honourable manner. 

Here then are blended in a confusion, which can be accounted 
for, only from the haste of the Ambassador, three very distinct 
subjects for the consideration of the public. The first is the denial 
of the President's right to dismiss a Vice-Consul. The second is the 
right of examining Duplaine's conduct, attributed to the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts ; and the third is the assertion of the Vice 
Consul's innocence, and what is called his acquittal. It would 
perhaps be more regularly methodical to begin with the considera- 
tion of the last point, in which the whole transaction, whence the 
contest originated, may be unfolded to the public. But the ques- 
tions of right are altogether independent of the facts. It is totally 
immaterial to the question relative to the authority of the President, 
whether Duplaine was guilty of infringing the laws of the land 
or not. Mr. Genet in fact affirms, that if his subaltern had been 
guilty of all that has ever been laid to his charge; nay that if a 
Consular Agent has, under colour of his office, committed crimes 
as atrocious as the human heart is capable of conceiving, and the 
hand of executing; still the President has no authority to revoke 
his exequatur, or to refuse recognizing him as any longer entitled 
to the enjoyment and execution of his Consular functions. The 
examination therefore of the three several points may pursue the 
course which arises from the letter itself. 

But such is the singular incoherence of the Minister's political 
system, that before we can be admitted to the examination of one 
principle advanced by him, we are obliged to contend for another, 
which at one instant he formally acknowledges ; and the next 
moment, still more formally denies. After having read in his 
letter to the Secretary of State, an admission that the sovereign, 
to whom a minister or Consular Agent is sent, may for good cause 
discharge or suspend, or send them away, as a national act of 
justice, it might have been expected, that this principle would be 
considered as one of those undisputed points, one of those data of 
national jurisprudence, upon which in fair argument, a train of 



i64 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

reasoning might be founded, without a previous demonstration of 
its truth. What then must be our surprise, when we perceive that 
this hair-brain'd Hotspur of an Envoy, had no sooner made one 
rational concession, than he repents of it, and sends off post haste, 
to Citizen Dannery, instructing him to protest, and re-protest 
against the act of the President, as assuming a power which the 
nation itself could not either delegate or possess ? 

Since therefore upon his more mature reflection, he has thought 
fit to deny the right of the nation itself, it becomes necessary to 
follow him through all his mazes, and to consider how far this last 
assertion is warrantable. 

We are therefore to enquire, whether by the Laws of Nations^ 
there is in every sovereign and independent state, a power compe- 
tent to dismiss the agent of a foreign power for encroachment upon, 
and infringement of the laws of the land, under colour of executing 
the duties of his office ? 

The laws of nations, it is well known, are nothing more than 
the principles of reciprocal justice and equity, which common 
sense and natural reason dictate as having the greatest tendency to 
promote the mutual advantage and happiness of all nations in 
their intercourse with one another. They derive their obligation 
from that fundamental maxim of nature and religion, to do unto 
others as we would that they should do unto us. The application 
of this universal rule of right gives a solution to every political 
question that can arise among nations as well as individuals. 
But as this application to every particular transaction between 
political societies might occasion perpetual altercation among them, 
unless some less comprehensive principles were admitted as dedu- 
cible from it, the practice of all civilized nations has been to acknowl- 
edge these subordinate axioms, because they have heretofore been 
acknowledged in similar cases, and thus custom and precedent have 
always been admitted as authorities in support of any national 
act, which does not evidently militate against the stronger obliga- 
tions of natural justice. 

The opinion of wise, learned, and virtuous men, who have 



1793) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 165 

made the science of national jurisprudence the study of their 
lives, and who have published for the benefit of mankind the result 
of their laborious researches, are likewise admitted by the common 
consent of nations to have much weight, as evidence of the con- 
clusions, which in particular cases are to be drawn from the general 
principle. 

It is readily admitted, that all arguments derived from the two 
latter of these sources of national law, are subject to the correc- 
tion and control of the former, and can have no force otherwise 
than as they are conformable to it. That precedent is often 
iniquitous, and the opinions of the most ingenious and instructive 
writers are sometimes erroneous. They are therefore not to be 
implicitly followed as infallible guides, but to be recurred to as 
experienced conductors, and consulted as impartial advisers. 

When therefore the French Minister "thanks God, that he has 
forgotten what Grotius, Puffendorf and Vattel have written 
upon the laws of nations," he ought to be told, that his forgetfulness 
"is not a thing to thank God on." When he affirms that these 
writers "were hired jurisprudists, and wrote when they were all 
enchained," he asserts what is not true. Grotius, the venerable 
and successful defender of the Christian Faith; the learned and 
strenuous supporter of the freedom of the sea ; the firm and 
dauntless republican asserter of his country's rights against the 
encroachments of princely usurpation, was one of the greatest and 
most illustrious of men, that ever adorned and dignified the human 
character. Puffendorf was indeed the subject of a monarchical 
government, but his reputation as a man was such as would have 
done credit to the most virtuous Commonwealth of ancient or 
modern times ; and his system as a writer pursues the path which 
Grotius had explored, and is only an improvement upon his 
principles. Vattel himself declares "that he was born in a 
country of which liberty was the soul, the treasure and the funda- 
mental law. That he would not have written if he could not 
have followed the light of his conscience. That nothing re- 
strains his pen, and that he was incapable of prostituting it to 



i66 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

flattery." To insult the memory and slander the reputation 
of men like these, of men whose virtues and genius have deserved 
well of mankind, does as little credit to the head as to the heart 
of Mr. Genet. It is not the liberal and enlightened spirit of 
freedom, but the furious ignorance of the Mahometan barbarian, 
who burnt the magnificent library of Alexandria, because the con- 
centration of all wisdom and all virtue in the Koran rendered 
every other boon useless or pernicious. 

If however the Ivlinister shall insist upon forgetting all the 
memorials of former wisdom ; it is to be hoped that he will permit 
the Americans to retain this memory as a companion to their 
senses. They have no disposition, I think, to plunge into the same 
Lethean stream, and if any of their devotion should be excited 
upon the occasion, they will rather pay their tribute of gratitude 
to the common parent for what they remember, than for what they 
have forgotten ; rather for the possession, than for the loss of 
their recollection. 

From the ground of natural season, upon the principles of 
public justice, there can be no doubt, but that some power should 
exist in every country, competent to remove the servant of another 
sovereign, who makes the duties of his office a cloak for the most 
violent infraction of the laws of the land. For if such a power 
does not exist, then the lives, the liberty and the property of the 
citizen must be perpetually at the mercy of a stranger. This doc- 
trine is too absurd, even for despotism itself. How intolerable 
then must it be in a country which has so cautiously protected 
the enjoyment of those blessings against all internal authority f 
The expedient proposed by Mr. Genet of complaining to the 
Master of the culprit, and obtaining his recall or dismission, must 
in many instances have been a very inadequate remedy for the 
evil. In cases of minor offences which do not require a speedy 
reparation, and where the removal of the man is to be considered 
as a penalty for past, rather than a precaution against future guilt 
— this mode of proceeding may be adopted. But if an armed 
force is applied to resist the execution of the laws ; if war is levied 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 167 

and maintained against the country itself; to talk of an examina- 
tion by one Legislature, for the purpose of complaining to another, 
who is to complain again to a power at three thousand miles 
distance, which must twice be traversed before relief can be 
obtained from the mischief, what is it but to add insult to injury ? 
Even among the nations of Europe, between whom the regular 
communication is continual, and where a few days may suffice 
to fill the interval between the demand and the answer, this sup- 
plicatory remedy would frequently be ineffectual. But it must 
be less than the shadow of a remedy between France and America, 
with an Atlantic ocean rolling between them. 

There is another reason why this mendicancy of justice ought 
not to be the only means of obtaining it, because it would leave no 
alternative between a degrading dependence of the party injured 
upon the offender's master for reparation, and the miseries of war. 
For suppose the complaint and the demand of removal made, and 
suppose the Sovereign of the criminal refuses to recall him, pro- 
fessing to be doubtful of his guilt, or determining to support 
him in it, then the insulted nation must either plunge headlong into 
a serious war, or tamely submit to see its authority trampled on 
and despised, without relief or satisfaction. Without recurring 
to any writer for instruction upon this point, common sense 
and common humanity must teach us that the interest of all 
nations ought to multiply as far as possible the means of avoiding 
war. 

The right of doing justice to itself is very distinct from that of 
requesting that justice be done, and they are both equally necessary, 
inherent and unalienable by a nation as much as the right of 
personal liberty in an individual. 

But the same principle of reciprocal benefit and utility requires 
that this right should be used with caution and reluctance ; that 
it should not be permitted to interfere with the rights, and as little 
as possible with the transient interests of the other nation ; that 
it should be exerted only on occasions of heinous offences on the 
part of the foreign agent, and that the measure be the most lenient and 



i68 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

■pacific that can be adopted, competent to answer the end of national 
justice. 

The refusal to acknowledge the offender in the capacity which 
has supplied him the means of guilt, is undoubtedly an act of this 
description. By depriving him of the power of repeating the crime, 
it affords a security against his evil intentions to the nation which 
has already been prejudiced by them, and therefore is a com- 
petent remedy. It violates none of the natural or civil rights 
of the man himself, and is therefore entitled to the praise of lenity. 
If at the same time, care is taken that the rights and interests of 
his constituents suffer no detriment, in consequence of his dis- 
mission ; the justice of the other party can never consider it as 
an act of aggression. The denial of this right therefore cannot 
be justified upon any principle of Natural Reason. 

In considering the subject, on the footing of national custom, 
we shall find numerous instances of public Ministers who have not 
only been discharged from the execution of their functions, but 
even sent home to their masters, by the sovereign to whom they 
had been sent, and not unfrequently with a demand of further 
punishment of the offender. The practice is supported by the 
unanimous concurrence of opinion among the writers upon national 
law. In proof of this, we shall recur not only to the worm-eaten 
authors whose authority is disclaimed by Mr. Genet, but to 
several others who are equally with them entitled to his contempt, 
and the reverence of mankind} . . . 

They [these quotations] all prove that even a public Minister 
may be suspended or discharged from the exercise of his functions, 
by way of prevention, and sent home to his master for punishment, 
by way of penalty. If then this measure may be adopted against 
an Ambassador, the immediate Representative of a Sovereign; 
against a Minister, whose sacred office, whose inviolable sanctity, 
whose perfect independence are so strongly dwelt upon, by all 
the writers from whom these extracts are made, how much more 
forcible is the conclusion that it may be pursued against a mere 

1 Here followed examples drawn from Grotius and other writers. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 169 

Consular Agent, whose character by the same laws of nations, and 
even by the express stipulation between France and America, is 
considered as vested with very few of those extraordinary privileges 
and immunities which are allowed to public Ministers. 

Now, Sir, all the arguments which are contained in the Protest 
against the revocation of Duplaine's exequatur, are founded upon 
the pretended supposition that the removal of a foreign Agent 
must necessarily be a limitation, obstruction, or abolition of his 
master's rights. The object of the argument which you have now 
read, is to prove that a foreign Agent may be removed, without 
affecting the right of his constituent at all. 

The right of the nation itself being established, we are again 
brought back to the assertion of Mr. Genet in his letter to the 
Secretary of State. 

In this letter, as it has been before observed, he acknowledges 
the right of the sovereign to discharge, send away, or suspend the 
Ministers of foreign nations, or their consulary agents, but denies 
that the Constitution of the United States has delegated this 
authority to the President. 

The Constitution of the United States says that the executive 
power shall be vested in the President. That he shall receive 
Ambassadors and other public Ministers, and that he shall take 
care that the laws he faithfully executed. In committing this trust, 
the people of the United States, undoubtedly gave to the office 
which they invested with this authority, all the powers which 
are essential to its fulfilment ; to suppose otherwise would be 
absurd in the extreme. The idea of expressly commanding a 
man to do a particular act, and at the same instant of prohibiting 
all the means, without the use of which that act becomes impossible, 
is too ridiculous to require a refutation. When therefore the con- 
stitution of the United States commands the President of the 
Union to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, this 
prescription is of itself a warrant, authorising him to do any act 
consistent with the laws of the land, which may be necessary to 
answer that valuable purpose. 



I70 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

If these laws are violated by a citizen of the Union, there are 
forms of trial, and modes of punishment prescribed by the municipal 
laws of the country ; and It is part of the President's duty, by 
virtue of the above cited clause, to take care that these be applied 
with efficacy. But if the infraction is committed by a foreign 
agent, under pretence of executing a foreign commission; then 
the offence on the part of the agent is an offence against the 
Laws of Nations, as well as against the municipal Law ; for the 
injury done to the latter, a Consul is subject to the same judicial 
trial, and the same penalties as an American citizen. But for 
the outrage committed against the Laws of Nations ; for the 
violence offered in the consular capacity, the proceedings of the 
President, in taking care that the laws be executed, must be 
grounded upon the Laws of Nations, and not upon the foundation 
of local legislation. 

Now by the Law of Nations I have already attempted to prove, 
that a foreign agent, whose conduct has been criminal, may be 
discharged from the further exercise of his functions ; or sent home 
without demand of punishment; or sent home with such demand ; 
or sent home with the requisition that he be delivered up for 
punishment ; and the only question that can remain is, whether 
by the Laws of Nations, these acts of severity are in every country 
properly within the department of the Executive power ? 

"In every government, there are three sorts of power: the 
Legislative ; the Executive in respect to things dependent on the 
Law of Nations ; and the Executive in regard to things that depend 
on the civil law." ^ 

The Executive Power, vested by the Constitution in the Presi- 
dent of the United States, comprehends both the latter of these 
powers ; since it authorises him to receive Ambassadors and other 
public Ministers ; and with the concurrence of the Senate, who 
are given him as a constitutional council for those purposes, to 
send Ambassadors and negotiate Treaties. The dismission of a 
foreign Agent for having violated the Laws is clearly in its own 

' Montesquieu, Spirit of Law, XI. 6. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 171 

nature an Executive Act. It cannot be necessary to prove this; 
no one that has a precise idea of the distinction between 
Legislative and Executive functions, can for a moment hesitate 
to acknowledge it. If then this act of authority is in its own nature 
an Executive Act, the right to perform it must of course be vested 
in the officer to whom the Constitution has committed the Execu- 
tive Power. 

The truth of this position cannot be disputed, without denying, 
at the same time, the right of the President to deliver the exequatur, 
which [it] is contended he cannot revoke. The Consular Conven- 
tion between the United States and France provides that "the Con- 
suls and Vice Consuls shall be bound to present their Commissions, 
and that there shall be delivered to them without any charges, the ex- 
equatur necessary for the exercise of their functions." Now there 
is no clause in the Constitution, authorising the President to deliver 
this exequatur, which by the stipulation in the Convention it is 
agreed shall he delivered. The right is not expressly contained in 
the authority to receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers ; 
for Consuls are not included in either of these descriptions by the 
Laws of Nations, and they are excluded from them by the Consular 
Convention. But the delivery of an exequatur is purely an 
Executive Act, and it is therefore properly performed by him, in 
whom the Constitution has vested the Executive Power. The 
same thing is to be said of its revocation. 

I believe the French Minister is not yet prepared to contest the 
right of the President to deliver the exequatur. Yet his conduct 
hitherto must warn us against any hasty conclusion, that he will 
be deterred from a measure of this kind by the absurdity of the 
thing. Such are the rules of his logic and of his morality, that a 
past acknowledgement on his part is no security against his future 
denial of a right or of a fact. If, therefore, the case should prompt 
him to deny the President's right to grant an exequatur, we may 
be permitted to remind him, that by this denial he must invalidate 
the authority which has been and still is ever exercised by all the 
French Consuls on the Continent. The exequatur and its revoca- 



172 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

tion stand upon the same ground, and you cannot destroy the one 
without annihilating the other. 

If the instrument delivered to the Consuls by the President is 
not legalized by the clauses of the Constitution which vest in him 
the Executive Power, and direct him to take care that the Laws be 
faithfully executed, it is not the exequatur, which the Consular 
Convention declares to be necessary^ for the exercise of their 
functions. If they have not received this necessary exequatur, 
all their official proceedings hitherto have been null and void, 
and the revocation of an instrument, which is of itself a nullity, 
cannot possibly be to them a reasonable cause of complaint. 

I am aware that the protest affirms that "the act by which a 
government acknowledges the character of foreign Delegates is 
not on its part a formal and necessary consent to their political 
existence." If the denial of this position rested barely upon a 
counter assertion from an officer of the American government, 
perhaps we might apply the adage, "Who shall decide when 
Doctors disagree.'"' But as the express letter of the Consular 
Convention declares the exequatur necessary for the exercise of 
the Consular functions, there is no room for asking any questions 
on the subject. 

The protest further says, "the Constitution of the United States 
has given to the government the right of receiving, not of dis- 
missing; for acknowledging, not of denying foreign Agents." 
The same idea is contained in the Minister's letter to the Secretary 
of State. I have already said, that the President's authority to 
deliver the exequatur to a consul is not founded upon the clause 
which empowers him to receive Ambassadors. But admit that it 
were, does not the right of acknowledging necessarily involve that 
of refusing to acknowledge 1 Suppose that Mr. Genet, instead 
of producing a commission from the Executive Council of the 
Republic of France, had brought one, under which his conduct 
in this country hitherto would have been natural and consistent, 
from the emigrant Princes ; according to his principles, the Presi- 
dent must have received and acknowledged him in that capacity. 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 173 

Suppose that the present government of France should recall Mr. 
Genet; and he from his propensity to dispute rights, should 
hasten to declare that he did not acknowledge the validity of the 
recall, and appeal upon the question to the Executive Council, 
who commissioned him, or to the ex-Princes above-mentioned, 
and in the meantime insist upon being still received and ac- 
knowledged as the Minister Plenipotentiary from France: 
The President, forsooth, would have a right to receive, but none to 
dismiss him ; a right to acknowledge, but none to deny him. The 
doctrine would, no doubt, be a very convenient one for him, and 
possibly by maintaining it, he means to provide for his future 
occasions. It is well to be secured against every contingency, but 
Mr. Genet must not rest his fate upon the imbecility of the 
American government. 

But "the Constitution of the United States, having denied the 
government the right of declaring war, this prohibition ought to 
extend itself to every sort of offensive act." It is not true that the 
Constitution has denied the government the right of declaring war. 
I am not disposed, Sir, to cavil upon words, and am willing to 
make every allowance for the blunders of Mr. Genet's trans- 
lators ; but the affectation of using the word government, instead 
of the proper expression of President of the United States, is a defect 
inherent in the original, and may easily be traced to the embar- 
rassment, not of the translator, but of the author himself. His 
recent experience had taught him that the people of America were 
not in a temper to countenance an insult upon the President of the 
Union ; and he thought it more adviseable to veil this new attack 
upon his authority, under the cover of a different expression. 
The protest therefore is worded against an act of the govern- 
ment, which the revocation is not, and cautiously avoids speaking 
of the President, who is really the object of the attack. The 
passage here cited is an instance of the manifest absurdities into 
which his awkward expedient had led him ; but what opinion 
must he entertain of the American understanding, when he sup- 
poses that it can possibly be the dupe of so miserable an artifice ? 



174 THE WRITINGS OF [1793 

What opinion of their judgment, when he thinks them less attached 
to the government of their country, than to the person of their 
chief magistrate ? 

When he tells us how far the prohibition ought to extend itself, 
is it an amendment or a construction of the Constitution, that he 
means to dictate to the government ? If an amendment, his 
command implies an enlargement of the functions limited by the 
constitutional act : If a construction, the government cannot obey 
his directions, without narrowing their defined authority. Just 
before this he says that a government can neither enlarge nor 
narrow the marked limits of their functions, but some singular 
fatality never permits him to advance a reasonable position, 
without compelling him immediately to contradict himself, and 
disclaim his transient and unnatural coincidence with truth. 

Nor is it true that the Constitution of the United States has 
reserved to the Representatives of the people the right of declaring 
war. An assertion so glaringly false, or so inexcuseably inaccurate, 
affords the clearest demonstration, that its author is equally desti- 
tute of every qualification necessary to amend or to construe a 
Constitution. 

There is therefore nothing in the letter of the Minister, or in the 
protest bearing the name of the Consul, but made by his superior's 
direction, that can give the faintest color to his pretence, that the 
President was not authorised to revoke Duplaine's exequatur. 

But if the President has this authority, he may involve us in a 
War. This argument applies not against the power, but the abuse 
of it. If the foreign Agent is dismissed for real misconduct on his 
part, the dismission gives no cause of complaint, much less of War 
to his master. If the President exerts this authority without 
satisfactory evidence of the Agent's guilt, and thereby exposes the 
country to the first resentment of a foreign power, it is a breach 
of trust for which he is liable to impeachment, and removal from 
his office. There is no doubt but the execution of the President's 
powers might be such as would involve the country in a War. By 
giving or refusing his assent to a bill he might produce a War ; 



1793] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 175 

by performing at particular junctures any part of his acknowledged 
rights he might occasion a War; nay, by acknowledging and re- 
ceiving an Ambassador from a power not authorised to send one, 
the case might happen that he must inevitably drive the Country 
into a War. Yet this is represented not only as an authorised, 
but even an obligatory function of his office, by the Minister him- 
self, both in his letter and in the protest. 

The Constitution of the United States has made the Declaration 
of IVar a Legislative Jet, and thereby has expressly vested the right 
of making it in the Congress, to whom it has entrusted the Legis- 
lative Pozver. This principle was, no doubt, adopted upon the 
mature deliberation, and upon the conclusion drawn by the framers 
of the Constitution, and by the people of America, that this declara- 
tion properly belongs to the Legislative Department of Govern- 
ment. But the Constitution has not said, that the President shall 
perform no function which in its consequence might be productive 
of a war. Such a provision would have been tantamount to a 
declaration that the President should have no powers at all. 

In resuming the argument which is now submitted to the public, 
the principles upon which it is grounded may be reduced to the 
following simple positions : 

That there is in this country, as in all sovereign states, a power 
competent to dismiss the agent of a foreign power, for any heinous 
and aggravated offence against the laws, committed by him under 
color of executing his office. 

That the exertion of this authority, from the nature of the thing, 
and by the practice of all nations, falls properly within the Execu- 
tive Department of Government. 

That the administration of foreign affairs is delegated to the 
Government of the Union, and the executive power expressly 
vested in the President. 

And, therefore, that the power of dismissing such a criminal 
agent is strictly within the limits of the authority constitutionally 
delegated to the President. 

But Mr, Genet does not allow the National Government so 



176 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

much as a right originally to complain of an infraction of the laws 
by a French Vice-Consul. He insists upon investing their right 
exclusively in the Legislature of the state where the offence was 
committed : and with imperious arrogance calls upon the President 
to procure an examination of Duplaine's conduct by the Legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts. Let us therefore candidly enquire, whether 
this measure which he so confidently demands, be really consist- 
ent with the laws and constitutions which guard the liberties and 
secure the happiness of the American people.^ 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Dear Sir : Quincy, January 5, 1794. 

I must apologize for not having answered before this 
your last letter, but your conjectures with respect to Colum- 
bus were not without foundation, and what with politics and 
law, what with public and private discussion, I have scarcely 
had a moment that I could call my own to perform my 
duties to you. Columbus has been attacked in the Chronicle 
by a writer under the signature of Jmericanus, and defended 
by another subscribing himself Barneveld.^ Columbus and 

'The fourth communication appeared in the Columbian Centinel, December i8, 
1793, and was confined to the point outlined above. The letters were widely copied 
and called out many replies. "The President, however, with the unanimous con- 
currence of the four officers of state, has formed the same judgment with Columbus, 
and I hear no members of Congress who profess to differ from them." John 
Adams to John Quincy Adains, December 14, 1793. Ms. "I have read all the 
numbers with attention, and consider them a valuable present to the public, 
tending to place in a true and just point of view the conduct of a man who has dis- 
graced his office, and made himself so obnoxious as scarcely to be entitled to common 
decency. Partisans may rail, but sound reason will enlighten and prevail." Abi- 
gail Adams to John Quincy Adams, December 30, 1793. Ms. 

''The letters of "Americanus" were printed in the Independent Chronicle, be- 
ginning December 19; those of " Barneveld," in the same paper, beginning Decem- 
ber 26. Both series ran into January, 1794. Mrs. Adams wrote on January 12: 
"I know of but one title which Americanus has to respect, and that is what nature 
could not withhold from him — age." 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 177 

Barneveld we are told are one and the same person, and 
the discussion is therefore still protracted, though I hope it 
will soon be closed. 

The public here have been sufficiently favorable to Co- 
lumbus. The applause which from many different quarters 
has been bestowed upon his letters in private conversations 
has been so much superior to their merits, that I dare not 
repeat the observations which have been reported to me 
lest you should suspect the author of vanity beyond the 
limits of common extravagance. In one of the last Centinels 
there is a sonnet to the writer of Columbus which you will 
probably have seen before this reaches you, and by which 
you will perceive that even the Muses have promised him 
the wreath of glory to entwine his brows. On the other 
hand the saturnine genius of the Chronicle has devoted to 

I ineffable contempt the ^^ petulance and affected wit of Co- 
lumbus and Barneveld, most of which (he says) is a sort of 
literary plagiarism from Junius"; they are called the ^''as- 
pirations of family pride,'''' and the ''^Juvenile author''^ is 
assured that he will not be rescued from contempt even 

k by the "high station of his sire." 

You will not suspect me to be much affected by criticisms 
like this. But there is one symptom calculated above all 

b others to congeal every source of future exertion. It is the 
manner with which these publications are received by some 
of my friends, and by many others, who would be clamorous 
enough in praise of the sentiments, if they were not dis- 
posed to check the aspirations of the writer. The public Is 
a lady having so many admirers, that a favor Is not to be 
obtained from her by one of them with Impunity. And 
even when the favor desired is nothing more than a simple 
smile of approbation, she cannot grant It without exciting 
all the evil energies of those whose ardor aims at much more 
familiar caresses. 

N 



178 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

Yet I cannot write for the common purposes of ambition. 
I cannot wish to be the rival of any candidate for public of- 
fice of any kind. My first and certainly at present my only 
object is to run with honor and reputation the career of my 
profession, and whenever I have joined in the public dis- 
cussion of political questions it has certainly been from 
motives more patriotic than personal. My country is 
entitled to my services however small their value may be, 
and if she will but approve I shall not ask her to reward them. 

The state of our public affairs assumes an appearance not 
only critical but alarming. Yet I cannot think our greatest 
danger to be apprehended from external enemies. They 
may distress us, but we can be ruined only by ourselves. 
We shall soon have no friends on this side heaven, and we 
shall have none but enemies there, unless we heal in some 
measure our internal divisions. To conciliate and unite 
appears to me at the present moment more than ever the 
interest and duty of every American. With respect to 
Genet and his frenzies, the object is in some measure ac- 
complished. But the prime agent to produce this effect 
has been his own folly. I wish that the wisdom of others 
may extend the principle of reconciliation to the other im- 
portant interests of the country. 

The winter vacation has given me some considerable res- 
pite from the forms of attending upon courts ; but our 
Common Pleas commence their session this week, and for 
the future three months my attention will again be directed 
to my own concerns. No man I find can serve two masters, 
and my professional studies have been somewhat neglected 
while I have been perplexing myself with the affairs of the 
nation. The Attorney General ^ is now at home, so that I 
shall of course be superseded in my official ministration at 

' Sullivan. 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 179 

the sessions. He looks at me with less complacency than 
ever, and is said to be the writer of Americanus. He in- 
tends, it is said, to stand as candidate for Governor, and I 
have some curiosity to see how he will manage his card so as 
to keep upon terms with the prophet Samuel ^ and his party. 
Both Jacobins, both Frenchmen, both pretending to be the 
slavish adorers of our sovereign lords the people. It is 
however conjectured by some that Sullivan will crouch and 
accommodate by taking the second station. This would 
certainly be his best policy, and would probably unite a 
strong party in his favor. The oldest head will no doubt 
wear the tiara, but his ambition will perhaps not be con- 
tented with a place, which would deprive him of his present 
office, which is doubly lucrative, and perhaps tie up his 
tongue at the bar. . . . 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, March 2, 1794. 
Dear Sir: 

You will doubtless hear before this reaches you the event 
of a town meeting which was called here lately ^ for the pur- 
pose of helping forward Mr. Madison's resolutions,^ and of 

^ Samuel Adams. 

2 February 24, 1794. See Columbian Centinel, February 26, 1794, and Inde- 
■pendent Chronicle, February 27, for the two interpretations of the proceedings. 

3 These resolutions were intended to place the commerce of the United States 
upon a better footing by imposing heavier duties upon the goods and vessels of 
nations having no commercial treaties with the United States and reducing existing 
duties upon the manufactures and shipping of those having treaties. They were 
printed in Annals of Congress, 3d Cong. 155, and in Writings of James Madison 
(Hunt), VI. 203. Aimed against Great Britain because of seizures of American 
merchantmen in the West Indies, they sought to protect the rights of American 
citizens from violation in any quarter. They aroused much party feeling, and Madi- 
son felt the criticisms and abuse directed against himself and the resolutions from 



i8o THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

intimidating our representatives who opposed them. After 
great [exertions] had been made to raise a Committee 
ready for everything, [and the] Committee had reported a 
number of resolves to answer [their purp]oses, a very decided 
majority of a crowded town meeting voted to adjourn with- 
out day, and did not even hear a discussion of the resolves. 
The lurking serpent was perceived and avoided. The com- 
mercial part of the town were almost unanimous, and the 
aversion to any measures which might be productive of war 
appeared very decidedly to be the prevailing sentiment with 
the citizens of every description. The Jacobins were com- 
pletely discomfited, and will have the mortification to find 
their intended poison operate as an invigorating cordial. 

The arrival of the new Minister from France and recall of 
Genet is another circumstance of mortification to the same 
party. ^ They are not yet sure that Mr. Fauchet will imitate 
his predecessor by connecting himself and his country with a 
desperate faction intent upon the ruin of our own government ; 
and while that remains an uncertainty, they feel extremely 
fearful of losing their main support. I hope however that 
the new plenipotentiary will pursue a different system, and 
that we shall still be permitted to remain at peace. 

Our Supreme Court has been sitting about a fortnight. 
Without being overburdened with business I have on my 
hands sufficient to employ almost all my time, and to keep 

the Eastern States. Of this meeting he wrote to Jefferson : "It appears, however, 
that in spite of all these diabolical manoeuvres, the town of Boston has been so far 
awakened as to have a meeting in the town-house, and a pretty unanimous vote 
for a committee to consider the subject, and report proper instructions for their 
member in Congress. The Committee consists of men of weight, and, for the most 
part, of men of the right sort. There are some, however, who will endeavour to 
give a wrong turn to the business." Writings of James Madison (Rives), II. 2. 

^ Fauchet's instructions were dated November 15, 1793, and he was received 
February 22, 1794. His despatches are in Correspondence of the French Ministers 
(Turner). 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS i8i 

upon my mind a continual anxiety which unfits me for any- 
thing else. This will be my excuse for having so long neg- 
lected to write you. 

Since the contest between Americanus and Barneveld, the 
reputed author of the former has treated me with an un- 
usual degree of civility. He has even in one or two causes 
of considerable consequence advised his clients to engage 
me. I know the man, and shall have as little dependance 
upon his kindness as I have fear of his resentment. I know 
he will never injure me while I keep myself out of the reach 
of his malice. . . . 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, March 24, 1794. 
Dear Sir : 

. . . The depredations committed upon the commerce of 

this country have considerably distressed and still more 

alarmed our merchants, and if the principle upon which the 

British have lately proceeded to seize our ships be persisted 

in, I fear we shall have no alternative but war; indeed it is 

of itself a state of war to have everything that passes under 

the denomination of supplies liable to capture.^ 

1 On November 6, 1793, "additional instructions" were issued to all British 
ships of war and privateers with letters of marque against France, to take all ships 
"laden with goods the produce of any colony belonging to France, or carrying 
provisions or other supplies for the use of any such colony," and bring ships and 
cargoes to legal adjudication in British courts of admiralty. The English minister 
(Grenville) afterwards explained that the order was of a temporary character, to 
prevent abuses that might take place in consequence of the whole Santo Domingo 
fleet having gone to the United States, and because of an intended attack upon the 
French West Indie islands by a British fleet. American State Papers, Foreign 
Relations, I. 430. 

"The merchants, particularly of New England, have had a terrible slam in the 
West Indies. About a hundred vessels have been seized by the British for con- 
demnation on the pretext of enforcing the laws of the monarchy with regard to 



I 



i82 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

The aversion of our people to war is however constantly 
strengthening, and has of late upon several occasions ap- 
peared in a very decided manner. The event of our town 
meeting exhibited very forcibly the public sentiment here ; 
a still later occasion has shown the prevalence of the same 
sentiments. 

An attempt was last week made to celebrate the late suc- 
cesses of the French by a second civic festival. It was set 
on foot by the Jacobin-antifederal faction, and they ap- 
pointed a Committee who applied to the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor to order out the military and to make a display in be- 
half of the Commonwealth. He at first complied with their 
request, ordered out an artillery company, and directed that 
they should be supplied with one hundred cartridges at the 
expense of the State, that is, from the public magazines ; ^ but 
what with squibs upon the subject in the newspapers, and 
with serious expostulations from some respectable gentle- 
men who got intimidated, one despicable passion rescued 
him from the disgrace which another was bringing upon 
him, and he countermanded his orders. The civic festival 
is postponed and we shall hear no more of it until some new 
accident shall give another clue to those who set it on foot.- 

the colony trade. The partisans of England, considering a war as now probable, 
are endeavoring to take the lead in defensive preparations, and to acquire merit 
with the people by anticipating their wishes." Madison to Jefferson, March 12, 
1794. Writings of James Madison (Rives), II. 6. A proposal for an embargo 
was at first negatived, chiefly by northern votes ; but in the face of further losses 
in the West Indies, and the clamors of the eastern shipowners it passed the House 
by a large majority, March 25, and became a law. 

1 "A feast is to be had in this town to celebrate the victories of the French. The 
Lt. Governor [Samuel Adams], we hear, has ordered that the collation shall be 
served in the Senate chamber; and that a military corps shall parade in honor 
of the day." Gore to King, March 19, 1794. Life and Correspondence of Rufus 
King, I. 555. 

* See Independent Chronicle, March 20 and 24. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAAIS 183 

The old gentleman has hurt himself by this improper com- 
pliance with an insolent request. The general opinion 
seems to be that there will be no choice of a governor by 
the people at our ensuing election. It is my opinion how- 
ever that Mr. Adams will be chosen. He may do less harm 
than some others, but he will certainly never do any good. 
Stat magni nominis umbra. His present impotence leans 
for support on his former services, and the olhce will be 
given him as a reward, not as an employment. I am, etc.^ 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, April 12, 1794. 
Dear Sir: 

I received this morning your favor of the 3d instant. We 
still hold tolerably firm to the text of neutrality, though we 
have our partialities for the French, and are much irritated 
against the British. This is natural enough, and indeed, 
although we have some grounds of complaint against both 
with respect to their treatment of our commerce in their 
present contest, yet it is not to be denied that the general 
disposition of the French ruling powers has been constantly 
favorable to us, and that the British government, acrimoni- 
ous, jealous and under the guise of fair pretensions, deeply 
malignant. The new instructions of the 8th of January 
have an appearance less hostile than those under which 
most of our vessels in the West Indies have been condemned, 

^ "At the second Town meeting I am informed you came fonvard and acquired 
much honor, as the business eventually redounded to the honor of the town of 
Boston. I was pleased that you had signalized yourself. I see very plainly 
whither your bark is tending. In vain you may cry, Quo me rapit tempestas ! it must 
be so. You must be your father's own son, notwithstanding the rocks he has 
pointed out to you." Charles Adams to John Quincy Adams, New York, April lo, 
1794. Ms. 



i84 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

and if we can labor through another summer without a war, 
I hope the affairs of Europe will assume a milder aspect.^ 
The unprecedented exertions which have convulsed that 
quarter of the globe are surely too violent for duration. 
The combined powers have made so little impression upon 
France, and have already suffered so severely, that I think 
they cannot hold out much longer. They must, I think, 
patch up a peace upon such terms as they can ; but how they 
can exist under their present governments, or any other, 
with a nation of fanatical atheists, all warriors, in the midst 
of them, is indeed a problem which nothing but time can 

solve. 

Our election of Governor took place last Monday. The 
numerous candidates of whom everybody talked, and for 
whom nobody intended to vote, had silently sunk into ob- 
livion, and Judge Gushing alone remained to be opposed to 
the claimant by succession.- In this town uncommon pains 

iThis order will be found in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I. 431. 
Lord Grenville explained to PInckney that the new order was issued to show the 
sincere desire of the administration to maintain the best understanding and har- 
mony with the United States, and to remove the pretext " from evil disposed per- 
sons" in the United States who were endeavoring to irritate the people against 
Great Britain and opposing the measures of their government. 

"The later accounts from the West Indies since the new instruction of January 
8 are rather favorable to the merchants, and alleviate their resentments ; so that 
Great Britain seems to have derived from the excess of her aggressions a title to 
commit them in a less degree with impunity." Madison to Jefferson, April 28, 
1794. Writings of James Madison (Rives), II. 10. 

The serious situation in the relations between the United States and Great 
Britain gave occasion to a special mission to England, John Jay being named as 
the special envoy. Washington had considered John Adams for the place, but 
Robert Morris objected, for a reason not stated. See King's memoranda on the 
origin of this mission in Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 517. 

" Gore had written to King In December : "The federalists talk of running Judge 
Gushing for governor, and there is some probability that he may be elected. Such 
an event is very desirable. It would make Massachusetts completely federalist." 
Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, I. 5 1 1. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 185 

were taken by both parties. There were 500 votes more 
than have ever been given upon any former election. Mr. 
Adams had 1400, and Judge Gushing 900. Our federalists 
droop the head and think all is lost. They know not so 
much of the human heart, or of the American character as 
you do. You told me what the event of the election would 
be last October, and I then thought your "oracle plus sur que 
celui de Chalcas." A friend of mine who lives in the coun- 
try, by the name of Townsend,^ a sensible man and a warm 
Federalist, has repeatedly told me previous to the election, 
that he did not think the prophet would even have votes 
enough to make him a candidate for the election. Why ? 
Because he is superannuated and antifederal. I have so 
often told him that I believed the choice of the people 
would be for this doting antifederalist. Since the election 
he writes me "I give you joy of the prospect of your old 
friend's being elected Governor. The votes went very 
different from what I expected. / was not sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the moral habits of the people. The main argu- 
ment of his being a scapegoat of seventy-five had more 
weight than I had expected." There will probably be no 
choice of Lieutenant Governor by the people. Mr. Adams's 
partisans in this town voted for Mr. Gill. He will probably 
be the highest candidate. 

My business I can hope will increase. But as it is I 
have no disposition to complain. It gives me bread and 
I find myself so well satisfied with that, that my greatest ap- 
prehension is of growing indolent and listless. It is hardly 
possible to obtain a conquest over the ambitious principle 
without subduing in some measure that of an honorable 
activity. You recommend to me to attend the town meet- 

^ Horatio Tovvnsend (1763-1826), a fellow-student with Adams in Judge Parsons' 
office. See Life in a New England Town, 30 n. 



1 86 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

ings and make speeches ; to meet with caucuses and join 
political clubs. But I am afraid of all these things. They 
might make me a better politician, and give me an earlier 
chance of appearing as a public man ; but that would throw 
me completely in the power of the people, and all my future 
life would be a life of dependence. I had rather continue 
some time longer in obscurity, and make some provision for 
fortune, before I sally out in quest of fame or of public 
honors. . . . 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Boston, April 22, 1794. 
Dear Sir: 

I received last week your favor containing the quotations 
upon the subject of sequestering debts. ^ I have not Ruther- 
ford, and know not whether it is owned in this town. But 
I have looked into Grotius, who gives the same opinion with 
Puffendorf as to the debt from the Thessalians to the Thebans 
which Alexander forgave. But their reasoning upon that 
case seems founded principally but not altogether upon the 
right of conquest, and admits but of a partial application to 
the propositions of the present time. There is in Grotius 
something more pointed to the state of our question. He 
says : "A king has a greater right in the goods of his sub- 
jects for the public advantage than the proprietors them- 

1 "The old debtors to British subjects, united with the over zealous friends of 
France and the Democratical Societies of our principal cities, are urging a seques- 
tration of things in action : and as I know you are not inattentive to any question 
of public law, I have enclosed you some minutes of authorities, and I wish you to 
look into all others relative to the subject." John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 
Philadelphia, April 5, 1794. Ms. 

On March 27 Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, introduced a resolution to seques- 
ter all debts due from citizens of the United States to British subjects, the proceeds 
to be used to indemnify all who had suffered from British violations of the rights 
of neutrality and of the Law of Nations. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 187 

selves. And when the exigencies of the state require a 
supply, every man is more obliged to contribute towards it 
than to satisfy his creditors," Grotius I. 1.6. Barbeyrac's 
note upon this passage is : "And consequently the sover- 
eign may discharge a debtor from the obligation of paying 
either for a certain time or forever, if the public good re- 
quires it," He gives an example from the Roman history 
after the battle of Cannae. 

These observations however seem to be confined to the 
debts due from one subject to another, and the influence of 
an act done at an epoch so calamitous cannot be cited as a 
fair precedent upon occasions when the common laws and the 
natural obligations of justice are not superseded by extreme 
necessity. 

That the sequestration of British debts must be considered 
as a direct act of hostility cannot I think admit of a doubt. 
But the instructions of the 6th of November were a direct 
act of hostility on their part. After the recapture of Toulon 
they did, it is true, pretend to explain them away and re- 
pealed them. But in the meantime the depredations com- 
mitted upon our commerce by their privateers and West 
India judges, under color of those orders, have been enor- 
mous, and such as a free and spirited people cannot tolerate. 
It is not surprising that the commercial part of the commu- 
nity have been so much exasperated, or that propositions so 
rash and intemperate have met with so much countenance 
in the national counsels. 

There is indeed something so fraudulent in the aspect of 
the proposals that the measure, if adopted, must be very dis- 
graceful to the nation. It is a dishonorable resentment 
which would afford a gratification to our enemies, because 
it would make us accessary to our own infamy, the instru- 
ments of our own shame. It is a rod which can only tickle 



1 88 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

our adversaries, but which may be turned into a deadly 
scourge upon ourselves. It is an expedient suggested by 
our passion to our weakness, and which nothing but our 
real impotence can in any degree extenuate. Yet what 
else can we do ^ If they will assail us as highway robbers, 
we must pilfer from them as pickpockets. We cannot 
fight, and therefore we must cheat them. This appears to 
me to be the real state of the argument, and all that can be 
said in favor of the sequestration. 

Since writing the above I received your favor of the 12th. 
I have read the case to which you refer in the Collectanea 
Juridica, but I do not find that Magens is owned here. The 
question at that time was in many respects different from 
ours, and the seizure of the debt, or rather its detention by 
the King of Prussia, less warrantable than a sequestration 
would be as now proposed. His cause of complaint was in- 
comparably less than ours. It does not appear that any 
violation of the laws of nations had been committed.^ Cer- 
tainly, nothing so flagrant as the instructions of the 6th of 
November. All the condemnations had been upon the real 
grounds either of enemy's goods or contraband trade. Then 
the debt was the King's. His faith had been pledged for 
its payment. Circumstances rendered it a debt of peculiar 
and more than ordinary obligation upon him to discharge. 
All these points are dwelt upon in the report of the King of 
England's law officers, and very few of their arguments could 
now be applied against the measure on our part. 

^ In 1752 the King of Prussia, as an act of reprisal, stopped the payment of in- 
terest due by him to English creditors on the Silesian loan. Such a measure, al- 
most unprecedented in modern times, called out a memorial from the British 
government, prepared by Sir George Lee, Dr. Paul, Sir Dudley Ryder, and Mr. 
Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield. It has generally been commended by pub- 
licists, and was characterized by Vattel as "an excellent morceau de droit des gens" 
Collectanea Juridica, I. 154. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 189 

I have not met with an instance of reprisals upon debts 
in the course of the present century. I am, etc. 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Dear Sir : Boston, May 26th, 1794. 

Mr. [Ebenezer] Dorr obtained a passage in the vessel with 
Mr. Jay, and Mr. [Edward] Jones had an opportunity to go 
from Newport, so that they had no occasion to make the 
application to Congress in behalf of which I requested your 
favor.^ 

I drew another petition some time since for the manufac- 
turers of snuiT and tobacco in this town, making representa- 
tions against the tax proposed upon those articles. I know 
not whether you have seen this petition, or in what light it 
appeared if you did. In the House of Representatives I 
believe it was not read, and the tax I understand has passed. 
I was somewhat puzzled for reasons to suggest against it. 

The session of Congress I presume is approaching to a 
close. The prospects of immediate war appear to blow over. 
Whether we shall be able to make any terms of accommoda- 
tion with Great Britain and obtain proper satisfaction for 
her insolence and violence, is still very questionable, but it 
is of infinite importance that we should preserve peace, 
until war shall become a duty. 

It is therefore fortunate for the country that the pas- 
sionate measures which have been proposed were all defeated. 
That for the suspension of intercourse with Great Britain 
was one of the most important of them. Your decision of 
that question probably gave the tone to our affairs for one 

^ They were merchants of Boston who desired to obtain leave to send a small 
vessel in ballast to some port in Europe to secure their property. The embargo 
prevented all communication with Europe. 



I90 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

season further. The fate of this country depended upon 
that vote.^ I expected it would have renewed the abusive 
system which was for some time so rancorously pursued, but 
which for some time past has drooped away. But very 
little has been said upon the subject, and I have not seen a 
single speculation in the prints upon it. 

The cessation of the embargo is offensive to our Jacobins, 
who are reduced to the argument, that either the Congress 
were precipitate in laying it on, or imprudent in taking it 
off.- I have silenced some of them by avowing the former 
as my opinion. 

' Abraham Clarke, of New Jersey, had introduced a resolution, April 5, for sus- 
pending all commercial communication with Great Britain. It passed the House, 
but was lost in the Senate by the castijig vote of the Vice-President — John Adams. 

* See McMaster, History of the People of the United States, II. 173, 174. The 
embargo was raised May 25. " The Secretary of State called upon me this morning 
to inform me by order of the President, that it was determined to nominate you to 
go to Holland as Resident Minister. The President desired to know if I thought 
you would accept. I answered that I had no authority from you, but it was my 
opinion that you would accept, and that it would be my advice that you should. 
. . . Your knowledge of Dutch and French, your education in that country, your 
acquaintance with my old friends there, will give you advantages beyond many 
others. It will require all your prudence and all your other virtues as well as all 
your talents. ... Be secret. Don't open your mouth to any human being on 
the subject except your mother. Go and see with how little wisdom this world 
is governed." John Adams to John Quincy Adams, Philadelphia, May 26, 1794. 
Ms. 

"The nomination, which is the result of the President's own observations and 
reflections, is as politic, as it is unexpected. It will be a proof that sound principles 
in morals and government are cherished by the executive of the United States, and 
that study, science and literature are recommendations which will not be over- 
looked. It will, or at least it ought to have in England and Holland more effect 
than any thing that has been done, except perhaps the appointment of Mr. Jay. 
It is a pledge given by the American cabinet, that they are not enemies to a rational 
form of government, and that they are not hurried away by a wild enthusiasm for 
every unmeaning cry of Liberty, Republicanism and Equality." Ibid., May 29, 
1794. Ms. The nomination was laid before the Senate May 29, and confirmed on 
the following day. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 191 

You have seen the operation of democratic clubs in this 
town by the dismission of Mr. Jones and the election of Mr. 
Morton as representative.^ Morton has of late been a 
violent sans-culotte, and faction covers at least as great a 
multitude of sins as charity. 

The opposite party have not so much industry and have 
not the advantage of an organized system. Otis had about 
200 votes but did not obtain his election. Jarvis was for- 
merly his warm political friend, and probably viewed him as 
a disciple of his own ; but finding him intractable and rather 
falling into the other scales, he has forsaken him, and of 
course carried off a powerful interest. Jarvis's electioneering 
influence in this town is very great. . . . 

COMMISSION TO THE NETHERLANDS' 

George Washington, 
President of the United States of America 

To John Quincy Adams. — Greeting. 

Reposing especial trust and confidence in your integrity, pru- 
dence and ability, I have nominated, and by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, do appoint you the said John Quincy 
Adams Minister Resident for the United States of America with 
their High Mightinesses the States General of the United Nether- 
lands, authorizing you hereby to do and perform all such matters 
and things as to the said place or office doth appertain, or as may 
be duly given you in charge hereafter, and the said office to hold 
and exercise during the pleasure of the President of the United 
States for the time being. In Testimony whereof I have caused the 
seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed. Given under my 
hand at the City of Philadelphia the thirtieth day of May, in the 
year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety four, 

^ Perez Morton succeeded John Coffin Jones. 

* Adams succeeded to William Short, at this time at the Court of Madrid. 



192 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

and of the Independence of the United States of America the 

eighteenth. 

Geo. Washington. 

By the President of the United States of America, 

(Seal) Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Philadelphia, July 10, 1794. 
Dear Sir : 

I arrived here last evening, and this morning paid my 
respects to the Secretary of State, who introduced me to the 
President. I find that it is their wish that I should be as 
expeditious in my departure as possible. I told the Secre- 
tary that the state of my own affairs would render my re- 
turn to Boston previous to my departure extremely eligible 
to myself. He inquired whether it would be indispensable. 
I replied that in my present situation I could view nothing 
as indispensable that could relate to my own affairs, and if 
the public service required it, I should be prepared to go 
from hence or from New York. He has allotted me about 
ten days to spend in his office in obtaining the necessary- 
information, and I expect it will be required of me to proceed 
immediately after from hence or from New York. Of this 
however I am not yet certain. I shall write you again as 
soon as I shall have any foundation for certainty upon the 
subject. . . .^ 

* He occupied his time in reading such material bearing upon his mission as was 
in the Department of State, and found opportunity to examine the six volumes of 
Ills father's despatches to the Continental Congress while he was their commissioner 
and minister in Europe. They proved, he wrote, "such a fund of information 
and of entertainment to me as I have seldom met with In the course of my life." 
Finding that the law allowed him a secretary of legation, he offered the place to his 
brother, Thomas Boylston Adams, who, after some hesitation, accepted the appoint- 
ment. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 193 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

Philadelphia, July 27th, 1794. 
Dear Sir : 

I expected to have been on my way to Boston before this, 
but Mr. Hamilton is gone into the country, and I cannot be 
supplied with my instructions until he returns. He has been 
expected every hour these four days, and it is very possible 
that four days hence he may still be hourly expected. In the 
meanwhile I am here lolling away my time, and sweating 
away my person, with nothing to do and waiting with as 
much patience as I have at command. I am unable to say, 
therefore, when I shall leave this place, but hope it will be 
by the middle of this week. 

But I presume that my instructions after all will contain 
nothing very particular. The Secretary of State says that 
the mission is almost exclusively reduced to a pecuniary 
negotiation. 

To have nothing further to do but to borrow money and 
superintend the loans already existing, is an employment to 
which for a certain time I have no reluctance In submitting. 
It Is a situation In which my services may be of some small 
utility to my country, and which may afford me a valuable 
opportunity to improve my information and talents ; but 
I cannot think of it with any satisfaction as a permanency, 
whether I consider it with reference to the public or to my- 
self. 

As it respects the public, it is a situation of small trust 
and confidence under the present circumstances. The 
credit of the United States stands upon such ground that 
very little or none of their future success or failure will de- 
pend upon the personal character or abilities of their repre- 
sentative there. And I presume the executive government 
o 



194 



THE WRITINGS OF [1794 



of this country will not think it necessary to keep a Minister 
constantly resident at the Hague for the sole purpose of 
occasionally borrowing a sum of money for the public at 
Amsterdam. 

Should that however be the policy of the government, and 
should it be at my option to continue from year to year in 
this state of nominal respectability and real insignificance, it 
is proper for me to determine how long I shall bear it. And 
this is a subject of much reflection and much anxiety to my 

mind.^ 

I have abandoned the profession upon which I have 
hitherto depended for a future subsistence. Abandoned it 
at a time when the tedious novitiate of hope and fear was 
nearly past; when flattering and brightening prospects 
were every day opening more and more extensively to my 
view ; when I was at least upon a footing of equal advantage 
with any one of my own standing in the profession, and 
advancing if not rapidly at least with regular progression 
towards eminence ; when the reward of long and painful ex- 
pectation began to unfold itself to my sight and give me a 
rational hope of future possession. At this critical moment, 
when all the materials for a valuable reputation at the bar 
were collected and had just begun to operate favorably for me, 
I have stopped short in my career, forsaken the path which 
would have led me to independence and security in private 
life, and stepped into a totally different direction. 

To that profession I can never return without losing many 
of the advantages which rendered its practice tolerable. The 

i"Some principle I must determine upon before I go; for my commission is 
during the pleasure of the President. It is a tenancy at will, and therefore it is 
proper that I should settle beforehand the contingencies upon which my will shall 
determine, upon the supposition that the President should not make such determina- 
tion on my part unnecessary. I wish to serve my country, but not to feed upon 
her for nothing." To John Adams, July 20, 1794. Ms. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 19S 

reputation which hitherto I had acquired was still very 
much confined and limited ; it was founded upon four years 
of constant application and attention to business. My 
absence will not only stop its growth, but will carry me back 
to that obscurity in which I began. The study of the com- 
mon and statute law has nothing attractive to secure any 
attention to it unless some inducement of immediate interest 
serves as a stimulus. My business and my studies in the 
character which I am now to assume have very little affinity 
with those of a practising lawyer. I shall probably have 
but little leisure, and shall not be disposed to devote it to 
Kings Bench or Chancery Reports, to Littleton's Tenures 
or Coke's Commentaries. Yet these studies must essentially 
be uninterrupted to preserve the learning of a lawyer, and 
two or three years' intermission will have the double effect 
of disgusting me with them, and of disqualifying me from 
the practise of the law without a redoubled application to 
them. 

In proportion as my own professional advancement will 
be checked that of my contemporaries, and particularly of 
those who started from the goal nearly at the same time 
with myself, will be promoted. They will continue to make 
their way, and will in a few years have reached the summit 
of reputation and of business. My juniors who are now 
just opening their offices, or are yet students, will then have 
reached the station from which I have departed, and thus 
after having been elevated to a public station much beyond 
my own wishes and expectations, and invested with a 
character more conspicuous than those of my fellow citi- 
zens of equal years and standing in the world, in returning 
to the bar I shall descend as much below the level of my 
ambition and pretensions as I have been by my present 
appointment raised above it. 



196 THE WRITLNGS OF [1794 

The profession, therefore, can be considered by me in no 
other light than that of a last resort, in case all other re- 
sources should fail ; and yet I have no reason to suppose 
that anything more eligible will occur to me in case I should 
at the end of two or three years be destitute of public em- 
ployment. 

Unpleasant however as this perspective is, I think it in- 
finitely preferable to that of remaining in the public service 
to perform duties which may be executed equally well by 
any other man, and with the consciousness of holding a 
public office without confidence, without utility, and for no 
other purpose than barely to give me a subsistence. 

The idea of being many years absent from my country, 
from my family, my connections and friends, is so painful, 
that I feel a necessity for fixing upon some period to which 
I may look forward with an expectation of being restored to 
them. The distance between the two countries is so great 
and the communication of course so small, that It is hardly 
possible for an American to be long In Europe without losing 
in some measure his national character. The habits, the 
manners, and affections Insensibly undergo an alteration, 
the common changes to which society is Incident remove 
many of the friends and connections which he left behind 
him, and no others are substituted in their stead. His own 
propensities are so liable to follow the course of the stream 
into which he has been banished, that he gradually takes 
an European disposition, becomes a stranger to his own 
country, and, when at length he returns, finds himself an 
alien in the midst of his own fellow citizens. 

The attachment which I feel for my native land Is not 
merely a sentiment of the heart, it Is also a principle dictated 
by my reason. Independent of my feelings and inclinations, 
I hold it to be a duty of the most rigid obligation to make the 



1794) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 197 

place of my birth the centre of all my wishes, and the chief 
object of all my pursuits. Wherever my lot may be cast, I 
hope I shall always turn towards it with as much frequency of 
devotion and as constant veneration, as that with which the 
most faithful disciple of Mahomet presents his face towards 
the tomb of his prophet. I cannot therefore look forward 
with indifference to any situation that shall have a tendency 
to loosen the ties which connect me with my country. I 
cannot anticipate without concern a length of absence, 
which may give my inclinations a bias different from that of 
my duty. 

For these reasons I am convinced of the propriety there 
is in marking out for my own determination the limits of 
time for the duration of my present mission. It is very 
possible that I may have no occasion for any such limitation, 
and that my commission will be superseded by the will of the 
President, as soon or sooner than I shall desire ; but this is an 
event, which is wholly out of my control, and which there- 
fore cannot enter into my calculations. 

If after three years residence at the Hague I should see 
no particular object requiring my further continuance 
there ; if the business of an American Minister there should 
continue to be the mere agency of a broker, and my office be 
of no benefit but to me, I shall feel myself under an obliga- 
tion to return home and resume my profession, or any other 
employment in private life that shall afford me an honorable 
support. 

I have written very freely to you. Sir, upon this subject, 
because I wish to have the sanction of your opinion and your 
advice. The principle which I have adopted has been so 
consonant to your own practice, and has been in my mind so 
clearly the result of your instructions, that I think it cannot 
but meet with your approbation. Perhaps the time upon 



198 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

which I have fixed may not preserve so accurately the 
medium as I should wish, and if you are of that opinion, I 
must solicit you for the result of your reflections in writing, 
if it be not too inconvenient. Your kindness will excuse 
the unceasing egotism of this letter, which could admit of 
no apology, were It not directed to the Indulgence of a parent, 
for the purpose of obtaining the guidance of paternal wis- 
dom. . . . 

INSTRUCTIONS 

Philadelphia, July 29th, 1794. 
Sir, 

Your predecessor and yourself are furnished with all the docu- 
ments of form. To him have been sent letters of recall ; to you 
have been delivered your commission and letters of credence to 
the Stadtholder and States-General. You are also possessed of a 
cypher. 

Although the general history of a country, and its Constitution 
will necessarily attract the attention of a minister and of the 
government, from which he goes ; yet is it not only superfluous 
to recommend to you the acquisition of subjects already known 
to you, but we can also dispense with any special communications 
upon them. However, if even concerning them, it should appear 
that the books, from which our knowledge of the United Nether- 
lands is derived, go beyond or fall short of the truth, it will be ex- 
pected, that these observations should be noted to us. If, too, the 
germ of any important change should be foreseen, it will be honor- 
able to yourself, and may be advantageous to the United States 
to apprize us of it, as early as possible. 

The administration indeed of the Dutch government is not only 
liable to the fluctuations, which the administration of every 
government undergoes, from the passions and views of Individuals 
at the helm of affairs; but the peculiar situation of Holland in 
relation to the present European war lays It open to the chance of 
sudden revolutions, and very sudden and new courses of policy. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 199 

These and every other interesting occurrences will be marked 
with care, and forwarded to the Secretary of State. Among 
other things, which may be contemplated, as worthy of observa- 
tion ; if any symptom of increasing liberty, of dissatisfaction 
with any of the combined powers, or of an inclination to make 
peace with the French Republic should be found, you will hasten 
to us the intelligence of them. 

It will be at least a matter of curiosity to understand, in what 
light the existing armed neutrality between Sweden and Denmark 
is considered at the Hague, after the part, which Holland took 
in the former system. 

Notwithstanding we have ministers and consuls in other parts of 
Europe; yet if you should obtain any very interesting intelligence 
from countries not lying within your immediate functions, it will 
be acceptable to receive it, even with the probability of some in- 
accuracy. The movements of the northern French armies may 
continue to be in your neighborhood, and early opportunities from 
France being cut off, we are dependent upon British prints for the 
first breaking of French events. 

Our treaty with Holland ^ being the basis of our commercial 
intercourse, you will do well to inquire into the operations of every 
stipulation ; and as it is a great desideratum in our political ar- 
chives, that we have no authentic tables of our commerce in 
detail with different nations, it will be an essential service to 
collect minute statements of it with Holland. You understand too 
well to be in need of an enumeration, what are the points in which 
foreign commerce is valuable. To these therefore you will partic- 
ularly turn your mind ; and if our commerce can be relieved from 
any burthens, or promoted by any exertions of the Executive 
or Legislature ; you will put it in our power by proper and reason- 
able representations. The only thing which now occurs upon this 
head is, that our treaty is interpreted not to suffer American 
Consuls to be introduced into the Dutch Islands in our vicinity. 
Mr. Van Berckel the Resident of the United Netherlands here,^ 

^ That of 1782, negotiated by John Adams. ^ Pieter J. van Berckel. 



200 THE WRITINGS OF {1794 

has been called upon to explain and to rectify the wrong ; but I can 
obtain no written answer to two letters, which I have addressed to 
him ; the reason of which I presume from a conversation to be, 
that he has no authority to enter into any adjustment. You will 
therefore let this business be discussed ; as we entertain little 
doubt, that Consuls of the United States ought to be admitted in 
all the Dutch territories. 

The employment of your predecessor has hitherto consisted in 
the management of Loans, which belong to the Treasury Depart- 
ment. That therefore is the channel, through which you will 
receive the will of the President in the article of money. 

But I must intreat and urge you, to make it your first and un- 
remitting duty, to forward by all the means in your power the 
loan opened for 800,000 dollars and destined to the ransom of 
our fellow citizens in Algiers, and the effectuating of a peace. 
Our bankers in Amsterdam have been commissioned for accom- 
plishing it, from the inevitable delay in your departure from hence. 
The Secretary of the Treasury, however, will lead you into those 
measures which may contribute to the advancement of the object. 

Our Consuls in Holland and in the countries, convenient to 
your residence are the following : James Greenleaf, consul, and 
Sylvanus Bourne, vice consul, for the port of Amsterdam, John 
Parish, consul for Hamburgh, and Arnold Delius, consul for 
Bremen. They are under general instructions to correspond with 
you, and as soon as arrangements concerning consuls and vice 
consuls, which are scattered in different instructions shall be 
reduced into one body, a copy of them shall be transmitted to 
you. . . . 

From you. Sir, I ask a communication by every opportunity. 
The Executive having been under some inconvenience on that 
score, it is the wish and instruction of the President, that a memor- 
andum be daily taken of every circumstance, which may be 
deemed proper for his information, and a letter commenced and 
continued, so as to be ready for conclusion and sealing, upon a 
moment's warning of a conveyance. . . . 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 201 

As you have a right to correspond with the ministry of the nation, 
near which you reside, in your own language, you will not lose 
this advantage. . . . 

Edm, Randolph ^ 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, October 23, 1794. 
My dear Sir : 

On the 15th instant in the evening, twenty-eight days 
after our departure from Boston, we arrived in this place, 
and I now write you from our old station at Osborne's 
Hotel, in the Adelphi. 

We landed at Deal - and came up from thence by land. 
The dispatches which had been delivered to me for Mr. Jay, 
and which were my principal inducement for coming here, 
were so bulky that they could not be contained in a trunk 
which I could bring with me in the post chaise, and there- 
fore I had the trunk that held them lashed on before, so as to 
have It Immediately under my eyes. It was about seven In 
the evening, and of course quite dark, when we reached 
London Bridge. About a quarter of a mile on the other side 
of it, I thought I heard something fall, and Instantly upon 

^ In a private letter, dated August 13, Randolph wrote : "The further despatches, 
which I wished to send to you at New York, must be deferred for the next mail 
to Boston, as it is all-important that you should carry to Europe a precise account 
of the insurrection [in Pennsylvania]." Ms. 

He returned to New York before August 12, and left for Boston by the Rhode 
Island packet on the morning of the 15th. Hamilton gave him the powers neces- 
sary to negotiate a loan, and from Randolph he had despatches to be delivered to 
Jay and Pinckney. Nearly a month passed before he could obtain a passage, and 
on September 15 he sailed from Boston in the Alfred, reaching London on the even- 
ing of October 15. It may be noted that James Monroe, appointed minister to 
France to succeed Gouverneur Morris, reached Paris, August 2, five days after the 
execution of Robespierre. Adams had met in New York, in July, Talleyrand and 
Beaumetz. ^ See Adams, Memoirs, October 14, 1794. 



202 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

looking forward found the trunk, together with another 
which had been put with it, were both gone. My brother 
instantly alighted and fortunately found the trunk of papers 
directly under the carriage, the other was a few yards be- 
hind, under the horses' hoofs of another carriage which fol- 
lowed us. We secured both in the chaise with us until we 
reached the house where we stopped, and upon coming to a 
light found that the ropes and leather straps which had 
held the trunks had all been cut away. 

I was sufficiently aware how far the felonious ingenuity 
was carried on this ingenious town, and from the moment of 
my landing had felt a great weight of anxiety on my mind 
with respect to my papers. I kept, therefore, a watch as 
strict as possible over them, and yet I cannot but attribute 
it to an extraordinary degree of good fortune that in the 
noise and bustle of a London street in the darkness of the 
night, I was enabled to save the trunk which had fallen from 
a carriage upon the full drive over the pavements, and which 
in half a minute more would have been irretrievably gone. 

After such an accident I could not possibly sleep with 
Mr. Jay's dispatches in my possession. I therefore de- 
livered them to him myself the same evening. I found he 
had been two or three days confined to his chamber by 
rheumatic complaints, but he has now I think entirely re- 
covered from them. 

' He has fully communicated to me the state of his negotia- 
tion here, and has done me the honor to consult me with re- 
spect to the treaty now in discussion between him and the 
Ministry here. It has been brought so nearly to a termina- 
tion that I presume it will within three months be laid be- 
fore the Senate for consideration. The terms are such as 
will not suit many people in America, and yet the stipula- 
tions on our part appear to me to be no more than honor and 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 203 

honesty dictate, and the satisfaction to be made by them 
almost as much (setting aside the further delay as to the 
delivery of the posts, I should say quite as much) as we are 
fairly entitled to require. The national honor will be main- 
tained, the national interest will suffer infinitely less than it 
would by the most successful war we could wage ; and is it 
in the heart of an American to derive an objection from the 
consideration that by this treaty the national justice will be 
fully complied with and performed ? 

I have not supposed myself competent to form a proper 
judgment upon a subject of this magnitude without longer 
time and more extensive information than I have been able 
to command. When Mr. Jay, therefore, condescended to 
take my opinion, I told him that as to the whole project, I 
felt myself inadequate to the decision from my own mind, 
and I could but assent to the idea in which he and Mr. 
Pinckney concurred, that it was better than War. As to the 
several articles they were freely canvassed by those two 
gentlemen for three days, during which I was present at 
their interviews, and suggested such ideas as occurred to me 
upon the subject. My observations were made with the 
diffidence which naturally arose from my situation, and were 
treated with all the attention that I would expect or desire.^ 

Upon the first occasion on which, as the servant of my 
country, I have been called to think and to speak, I am de- 
sirous to give you a full account of the manner In which I 
have conducted. Young as I am and unused to the station 
in which I am placed, my only hope is that the indiscretions 
of my novitiate may be few and unimportant. The con- 
fidence reposed in me by Mr. Jay on this occasion has been 
flattering in the highest degree, and I hope he will have no 
occasion to regret it. His kindness and civilities to my 

^ He gives his views at length in Memoirs, October 22, 1794. 



204 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

brother and me since our arrival, have been fully correspond- 
ent to the friendship which has so long subsisted between 
him and you, and to the benevolence which I have always 
experienced from him. We are also indebted to Mr. 
Pinckney for every possible attention and civility since our 
arrival. He has lately had the misfortune of losing his lady. 

When I asked you before I left America what I should 
do, if upon my arrival in Europe I should find no States Gen- 
eral and no Stadtholder,^ the circumstance was nearer to the 
eventual fact than I expected. The successes of the French 
armies in every quarter have exceeded all the powers of 
calculation ; they are in full possession at this moment of all 
Flanders and Brabant; they are besieging Nimeguen and 
Maestricht and it is admitted on all hands that nothing 
remains but a general inundation to keep them out of Amster- 
dam. Against this measure there appears to be a formida- 
ble opposition on the part of the people. The patriotic 
party are again emerging from the silence of despair, and 
one or two of the Provinces have already declared for ne- 
gotiating a separate peace. 

At Amsterdam a petition, said to be signed by nine thou- 
sand persons, was lately presented to the magistrates in ses- 
sion, against the admission of their allied troops into the 
city and against the inundation. Tvlr. Van Staphorst^ 
and Mr. Visscher ^ were two of the three deputies from the 
people who presented the petition. It was delivered in 
defiance of a law against petitions in times of danger, and 
I am informed that Mr. Van Staphorst is imprisoned in 
consequence of this procedure. Troops of cavalry have 
been introduced into the city and parade the streets. Can- 

^ William V, who married Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina (1747-1820), niece of 
Frederick the Great, and daughter of Prince August of Prussia. 
* Nicholas van Staphorst. * Charles Visscher. 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 205 

non are placed at the Stadthouse, and attended with lighted 
matches, and the Stadtholder has declared, that any man 
who shall discover the smallest sign of opposition to the 
regular authority shall be punished with instant death. 

In this convulsive situation between the army of an in- 
vading enemy and those of allies equally terrible, the people 
in the Province of Holland are at this moment placed. The 
crisis cannot possibly be of long duration. The Stadt- 
holder has been invested by the States General with a dic- 
tatorial power. His measures probably will be to receive 
the army of the Duke of York into Amsterdam, and to lay 
the country under water. But the decided inclination of a 
great majority of the people being opposed to this step, it 
becomes a question whether it will be practicable and upon 
the issue of the question the fate of the Netherlands is sus- 
pended. 

The King of Prussia negotiates a separate peace ; Spain 
and Sardinia in all probability must do the same ; and the 
Emperor is so thoroughly exhausted that he is almost 
wholly disabled from continuing the war with any vigor. 
At the opening of the campaign Britain and France, the 
Rome and Carthage of modern times, will perhaps remain 
alone to terminate the present contest. 

You have long before this heard of the catastrophe of 
Robespierre in France, and of the pretence upon which he 
suffered.^ Since that time a party styling themselves the 
Moderates have hitherto maintained their ascendency in 
Paris and in the Convention. They all join in loading the 
memory of Robespierre with every possible execration, and 
have transferred to him the appellation of the Tyrant, which 
had before been appropriated to the late King. The horrible 
cruelty which has been so destructive at Lyons, in la Vendee, 

^ Robespierre was beheaded July 28 (10 Thermidor). 



2o6 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

and In every part of the Republic ; the sinking of thousands 
of boat loads In the Loire ; the shooting of thousands by 
pairs at Lyons and elsewhere, the murdering of thousands 
under the forms of law by the guillotine, all Is heaped upon 
Robespierre, with as much apparent detestation as every 
friend to humanity has really felt at these transactions. 
A system of moderation has been pursued by the present 
ruling party. Very few have suffered by the guillotine. 
The commissioners In the several Departments have con- 
ducted themselves with lenity and endeavored to soothe 
and conciliate. Great numbers have been liberated from 
prison. The Convention has ordered that those remaining 
under arrest shall be Immediately tried or discharged ; 
the disposition for mercy seems even extending to the 
wretched emigrants themselves, and though always ex- 
cepted from the terms of capitulation granted to the several 
garrisons taken by the French troops, yet In one or two 
late Instances they have not been put to Immediate death. ^ 

But the violent party are far from being crushed. In the 
Convention it still struggles, and by the Jacobins and most 
of the popular Societies It is still supported. A rupture 
between the Convention and the Jacobins has widened so 
much that It must before long come to a crisis. Such is 
the succession of anarchical factions which alternately 
bear sway In the center, while at the borders all the armies 
of the Republic, with a combination of order and enthu- 
siasm, of severe discipline and irresistible impetuosity, 
pass from victory to victory, and have almost laid the whole 
alliance of their enemies prostrate at the feet of the Con- 
vention. 

Britain however yet retains every appearance of contin- 

' The situation of parties after the death of Robespierre is given in Cambridge 
Modern History, VIII. 378. 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 207 

ued hostility, and although the most determined parti- 
sans of the ministry venture to sigh openly for peace, yet 
no man of any description appears to expect it. The war 
to every outward appearance is still popular, and the ad- 
ministration since the Duke of Portland's admission to it 
is said to be strong beyond all former example. 

But the reins of government have been drawn so tight 
here that it would not be surprising if they should break. 
Thirteen persons are to be tried for high treason the next 
week. You will probably see in some of the late papers 
the indictment upon which they have this day (October 25) 
been arraigned. The trials are expected to take up a month 
and there is much more agitation in the public mind upon 
the subject than appears. Loyalty at this moment is strong 
and yet it is in terror. Opposition gnashes its teeth, but 
is silent or joins in the general cry. Suspicion, jealousy 
and a want of mutual confidence, betray themselves in the 
conduct and conversation of every one. These things are 
not heard, they are not seen, they can only be felt. In short 
the present state of society in this land of freedom has al- 
most every mark of a severe despotism. But it is certainly 
an unnatural state of temper to this people and it cannot 
continue long. A gentleman ^ conversing with me yester- 
day upon the approaching trials said, "The treason is vio- 
lently constructive, but it will do for this time. I expect 
the prisoners will be found guilty. Hampden was found 
guilty, so were Russell and Sidney, so was Sacheverell, but 
it was remembered afterwards^ I have heard nothing like 
this said by any Englishman (the gentleman I speak of is 
an American), but I have seen many who I believe think 
as much or more. 

^ Edmund Jennings. The conversation is given in greater detail in Adams, 
Memoirs, I. 53. 



2o8 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

As to the war, excepting their naval successes they have 
only shared In the defeats of their allies, who are now all 
upon the point of leaving them. France will probably 
have the terms of peace with them all at her own disposal, 
and will then turn all her attention towards the sea. At 
this moment there Is said to be a fleet of twenty-seven ships 
of the line at sea from Brest, about 100 leagues west of Scilly ; 
ninety frigates have been built since the beginning of this 
vcar. They have ten thousand British seamen now prison- 
ers in France, and they will not exchange a man of them. 
The deficiency of men here for the navy Is of course pro- 
digious, and even the fleet under Lord Howe is not half 
manned. It is however just gone to sea again, and another 
action, as terrible as that on the first of June,^ may be fought 
before the close of the year. 

But for the future in this war every advantage seems to 
be on the side of France. Their numbers are inexhaustible, 
and the loss of ten thousand men has no other effect than 
that of calling out myriads more. Everything that can be 
the subject of human possession belongs to the nation, and 
this maxim is most thoroughly reduced to practice. Of 
every species of property and of human life their prodigality 
exceeds the bounds of imagination itself. They have no 
commerce to lose. They have a most Inveterate animosity 
against this nation, and above all they have to establish 
upon the sea a reputation to bear a parallel with that of 
their armies upon the land. 

On the other hand the resources of Britain are compara- 
tively small. They will not want money. There does not 
appear the smallest suspicion of a deficiency on that score, 
and It Is everywhere agreed that at this moment the Minis- 
ter might command It to any amount. But their want of 

^ The engagement between Howe and Villaret-Joyeuse. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 209 

seamen is without a remedy, and must increase greatly even 
by the most brilliant victories. Their commerce suffers 
severely, and the moment they lose their naval superiority 
must be annihilated. Strongly as they are bent upon the 
success of the war, and inveterate as they always are against 
the French, they have not that enthusiasm which in France 
has levelled all the boundaries of private property, and put 
the whole mass of physical force in the nation into the 
hands of the government. They contend with an enemy 
whom repeated defeats will not discourage, but who would 
be irresistible after a single victory. In short, Sir, the situa- 
tion of this country, external and internal, appears to be 
perilous, and its prospects gloomy in the extreme. 

But I have already spun my letter to an immeasurable 
length, and will ask for no more of your time now except 
to assure you that I remain, with every sentiment of duty 
and affection, your son. 

P.S. Instead of thirteen persons to be tried for high 
treason I find upon further inquiry only nine ; and instead 
of twenty-seven ships of the line now at sea from Brest, 
there are but fourteen. I had this last fact from an American 
captain who fell in with them. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 3 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, November 2d, 1794. 
Sir: 

I left London on the twenty-eighth ultimo, and arrived 
here on the 31st, at night. ^ 

In the course of the present week I expect to have my 

1 He put up at the "Keyzer's Hoff," but on the 4th moved to the "Heeren Loge- 
ment." 



2IO THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

audience of the States. The Stadtholder is at Nimeguen, 
or with the army. 

The outward aspect of this country is not that of a nation 
invaded by a powerful and victorious army. From Hei- 
voetsluys to this place, a distance of about twenty of our 
miles, everything wears the appearance of peace and tran- 
quility. 

At Amsterdam everything is also quiet. Mr. Van Stap- 
horst and five others of the deputation from the subscribers 
of the petition against the inundations, etc., have escaped 
and fled, Mr. Visscher and four or five more are imprisoned 
on the same account. Three or five thousand troops have 
been introduced into the city, as a check upon the disposi- 
tions of the people, and for the present the government 
there meets with no resistance or opposition. 

But in the meantime the French armies continue to ad- 
vance, and the allied armies to retreat. The Duke of York 
after his defeat on the 19th [October] abandoned Nimeguen, 
and retired to Arnheim across the Waal and the Rhine. 
Since then, however, the French have been repulsed with 
considerable loss in an attack before Nimeguen. It is 
confidently asserted that the Duke of Brunswick is immedi- 
ately expected to take the command of the allied armies 
and the Duke of York is to serve under him. 

As to Maestricht there is a report that it has capitulated, 
and another that the French have also been defeated there. 
Venlo has certainly capitulated.^ The human force which 
the allies can at this time oppose against the progress of the 
French troops is not competent to answer the end, but the 
season is now far advanced, it becomes very rainy and un- 
healthy, so that possibly the armies of both parties will be 
obliged to go into winter quarters. 

* Venlo capitulated October 25. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 211 

The probability that the French will penetrate to Amster- 
dam this season is, I think, not quite so great as it appeared 
to be three weeks since. And if there should be a respite 
of two or three months from the war, the interval will 
doubtless be very busily employed in negotiation. 

Mr. Fagel is gone to London from hence upon a mission, 
the purpose of which is said to be to demonstrate to the 
British Ministry the absolute necessity of negotiating a 
peace, and to give them notice that unless they will join in it, 
the Hollanders must attempt it separately.^ 

On the other hand Lord Spencer and Mr. Grenville have 
returned from Vienna, having as is said totally failed in the 
object of their mission, which was to prevail upon the Em- 
peror to continue the war with vigor for the recovery of his 
own dominions, and to oflfer him a subsidy of five millions 
sterling for the purpose. I suppose all this to be conjectural, 
for the object of those negotiations in both instances is not 
public. - 

1 Henri Fagel (1765-1838) followed William V into exile, and after 1783 was Dutch 
ambassador to London. George III looked upon Fagel's mission as futile, as 
evidence of the want of energy on the part of the Prince of Orange. The Duke 
of York wrote that he was in every instance thwarted by the people he was trying to 
save, and the combined army complained of the unkindness they experienced from 
the Dutch on all occasions, and the want of preparations for defence. The English 
government yielded to the inevitable, but advised Holland to make such a peace 
with France as should secure the independence of the Republic and its present 
constitution and form of government. Hist. Mss. Com., Fortescue Mss., H. 644, 
646. 

^ Lord Spencer and Thomas Grenville had been sent in July to Vienna to urge 
Austria to greater efforts in furnishing troops, to change her general of the army, 
and to concert measures for the protection of the Dutch frontier; also to ascertain 
what subsidy was needed to enable Austria to prosecute the war vigorously for 
two campaigns. The mission proved fruitless, as it was neutralized by the sending 
of Count de Merci from Vienna to London about the same time, where he died 
August 25, without accomplishing any of his objects, and Austrian jealousy of 
Prussia could not be overcome. A loan of six millions was demanded of the English — 



212 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

What will not admit of any doubt is, that the allies, as 
is usual among partners that play a losing game, are dissatis- 
fied with one another; nor is there any present appearance 
that their armies will cooperate with any sort of cordiality 
the ensuing season in case the war should continue. 

Five of the Provinces here have declared for negotiating 
a peace separately, the other two no doubt will follow. But 
what kind of peace can they expect to obtain from France 
under the present circumstances ? 

The Patriotic party have no centre of union ; they dare 
have but little communication together, and I apprehend 
there is no plan for their operations concerted by any con- 
siderable number of them. 

From the few observations I have been able to make 
hitherto I imagine they have no desire of peace at present. 
Their animosity against the Stadtholder and the Regencies ^ 
is so great, that they would rather submit to the French as 
conquerors, than make peace with them as friends by the 
means of their present government. The inveteracy of the 
parties against each other is even greater than I expected, 
and if a revolution of the ruling power should take place, 
it is to be feared that humanity will suffer severely under 
the operation. 

The expectation of the Patriots is, that if the French 
should succeed, their private property will be respected. 
Many of them suppose no doubt that a discrimination will 
be made between them and the adverse party, and as France 
declared war only against the Stadtholder and his adherents, 
the nation will fraternize with all those who were before that 
time and have continued to be their implacable enemies. 

double what the English ministers offered. The two envoys left Vienna in October. 
Grenville's letters to his brother are in Hist. Mss. Com., FoTtescue Mss., II. 

1 Prussia and Great Britain had controlled the policy of Holland since the revo- 
lution of 1787, which reinstated the Stadtholder through their agency. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 213 

Private property has, indeed, hitherto been left untouched 
by the French in the places which they have conquered, and 
the only complaint of the people who have submitted to them 
has been the compulsive circulation of assignats in payment 
for whatever they purchase. Should this system be pur- 
sued, and the conquest of this country be completed, a 
total revolution of the government and even of the Con- 
stitution here seems to be inevitable. But whether the 
Provinces will be annexed to the French Republic or left 
to form a new government for themselves, to be in alliance 
with France, no person here appears to have formed an 
opinion whereupon to found a rational expectation. 

As this event might place me in a very embarrassing situa- 
tion, I am anxiously desirous of receiving eventual instruc- 
tions to regulate my conduct in either of the cases which have 
got so far within the limits of probability. 

Should this country become a dependence of the French 
Republic, my mission will of course be terminated by the 
extinction of the nation itself to which I am sent. Should 
it continue an independent Republic, but under a different 
form of government and constitution from that to which 
I am accredited, my functions authorized by the credentials 
and instructions which I now bear would, of course, be sus- 
pended.^ It is impossible to anticipate what species of author- 
ity may rise, instead of that which has hitherto governed 
this people. But it will be a great relief to my own mind, 
and possibly may be of service to the public, if I can be pre- 
pared for either of those events I have mentioned, by know- 
ing whether it is the pleasure of the President, that I should 
consider them as a termination of my Commission, and 
implying a permission to me to return home, or that I 

^ Adams had consulted Jay on the conduct to pursue in Holland, and the con- 
versation is given in Memoirs, October 28, 1794. 



214 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

should remain here and wait for his express orders, subse- 
quent to his knowledge of these occurrences. 

I have not yet received an answer from our bankers ^ 
to the letter which I wrote them from London and am there- 
fore still ignorant of the fate of the loan for 800,000 dollars 
for which they were commissioned. I shall write them again 
immediately, and as soon as I have obtained my admission 
here intend going to Amsterdam myself. In the meantime, 
I remain etc. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 4 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, November 5, 1794. 
Sir : 

Yesterday I wrote a card to Mr. Van Hees, the agent 
of their High Mightinesses, requesting him to appoint a time 
when it would be convenient to him to receive a visit from 
me, and giving him notice of the commission and credentials 
which I have the honor to bear. He appointed an hour this 
morning, when I called accordingly, and desired him to in- 
form me what measures I must take in order to obtain my 
reception. He told me the customary course was to pay 
a visit to the weekly president of their High Mightinesses, 
and deliver my credentials to him, who would on the same 
day communicate them to the States General, and they 

1 Willinks, Van Staphorst, and Hubbard. March 20, 1794, Congress, in making 
an appropriation of a million dollars for the expenses attending the intercourse 
of the United States with foreign nations, authorized the Secretary of the Treasury 
to borrow the whole or any part of the sum. In July Hamilton authorized this 
Amsterdam firm to negotiate in any part of Europe a loan for ^800,000, that 
amount being deemed urgent and necessary should a certain contingency arise. 
Adams found that the credit of the United States stood higher than that of other 
powers. In December, 1794, the four per cents were quoted at ten above par, and 
the five's at par. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 215 

would pass a resolution to acknowledge me in the character 
with which I am vested. "But (added he) I must observe 
to you, Sir, that Mr. Short has not yet taken leave of their 
High Mightinesses." I told him that when Mr. Short went 
to Madrid it was under the expectation of returning here, 
but that the United States having further occasion for his 
services in Spain, the President had now appointed him to 
reside there ; that I had been the bearer of his letters of re- 
call to their High Mightinesses, and had already sent them 
to him, as it was judged by the American government most 
consistent with propriety that they should be transmitted 
to the States General by himself. The Agent acquiesced 
in this idea, and said he believed there were some prece- 
dents conformable to this mode of procedure. That I might 
therefore be immediately admitted and deliver Air. Short's 
letters of recall, when I should receive them from him. 

He said it was also customary, immediately after deliver- 
ing the credentials to the weekly president, to leave a copy of 
them with the Greffier ; but as he was now absent, the com- 
munication might be made to the Comniis or clerk of their 
High Mightinesses. And after the acknowledgment it 
would be proper to give notice of it to the diplomatic char- 
acters here by visiting cards. 

November 6. This morning I waited on Mr. Van Imhoff, 
the President for the week, and delivered to him my creden- 
tials, which he said he should not fail to communicate to 
their High A'lightinesses this forenoon. I then went to see 
Mr. Lelyvelt, the Commis of the States, and left the copy 
with him, the Greffier^ Mr. Fagel, being absent. He told 
me that the resolution for my acknowledgment would not 
be passed till tomorrow, or the day after. That their High 
Allghtinesses received communications only in three lan- 
guages, viz. the Dutch, the French and the Latin. That 



2i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

as my credentials are in English, they must undergo a trans- 
lation before they can be read in the Assembly, which would 
occasion this delay of a day or two. 

November 8. Mr. Van Hees, the Agent, called and in- 
formed me that the President of the week having communi- 
cated to their High Mightinesses the letter of credence from 
the United States, which I had delivered to him, they had 
passed a resolution, the purport of which he repeated, but 
so rapidly and in so low a voice that I could not particularly 
understand it. He said the Resolution was not yet reduced 
to writing, but as soon as it should be, he would send it to 
me. The amountof it is to acknowledge me in the character 
conferred on me by the President, and the proceeding is no 
doubt according to the usual forms. ^ 

November 10. I received from the Agent of their High 
Mightinesses the resolution relative to my reception, a copy 
and translation of which I inclose herewith. 

November 11. You will observe by the Resolution of 
their High Mightinesses that an audience, either in the 
Assembly of the States or by Commissioners to be appointed 
for the purpose, is left at my election. I called this morn- 
ing upon the Agent Van Hees to inquire, which of these 
alternatives had been chosen by my predecessor. He 
assured me that they were both mere formalities which were 
always dispensed with, except on particular and extraordi- 
nary occasions, and had been so in the case of Mr. Short. 
That by the transmission of this resolution my reception 
and acknowledgment were completed, and if I had any 
communication to make for the future, the person with 

1 The second paragraph of this resolution reads: "Whereupon, after delibera- 
tion It was found good and understood hereby to declare, that the said Mr. John 
Quincy Adams is agreeable (aangenaam) to their High Mightinesses, and that he 
shall be acknowledged in the aforesaid quality of minister," etc. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 217 

whom my official correspondence is to be maintained is the 
Greffier, and If I should have memorials to present, they are 
to be delivered to the weekly President. 

I am fearful, Sir, that this minute detail of forms may 
appear tedious and perhaps trivial. But in these countries 
they are so much In the habit of annexing importance to ac- 
curacy in these particulars, and I have felt so much the want 
of information as to the mode of proceeding in this respect, 
that I thought it might at least save trouble upon some future 
occasion to have the regular process of reception trans- 
mitted to the Department over which you preside. I hope 
this consideration will apologize for the intrusion of a letter 
so very uninteresting as the present upon your perusal.^ 

I have the honor to be with sentiments of the highest 
respect. Sir, your humble and obedient servant. 

^To Short he wrote, November 21, 1794: "I have been unable to obtain neces- 
sary information even upon the subject of formalities. I have been obliged, there- 
fore, to grope in the dark as well as I could, and depend altogether upon the in- 
formation of the Agent of the States. The diplomatic visits, he told me, were 
usually rendered hy cards, so that I have not yet been made acquainted even with 
the members of that corps. The Prince's secretary is incapacited by old age, 
performs none of his functions, and I was necessitated to be my own introductor, 
to deliver my credentials to his Highness. Nothing so despicable, and nothing 
so indispensable as the science of forms." Three weeks later he was called upon 
to determine a question of form. His instructions contained the following clause : 
"As you have a right to correspond with the ministry of the nation near which you 
reside in your own language, you will not lose this advantage." Having occasion 
to present a memorial and a request to the High Mightinesses, he prepared them in 
English and delivered them in person to the President of that body. That officer 
in receiving them noted the fact that English was used, but said he would lay them 
before the States General. But Lelyveld attempted to return them to Adams on 
the ground that they violated a rule constantly observed by all the foreign ministers. 
Adams at first refused to receive them, asserting that they had already been ac- 
cepted by the President, and that he could not use another language without 
authority from his superiors, from whom he had received his instructions. Lely- 
veld insisting, the matter was settled by his taking the position that the papers 
had never been offered, and Adams, to secure justice and avoid unnecessary dis- 



2i8 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 i 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 5 ' [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, November 7, 1794. 
Sir : 

By a letter, which I received since I wrote you last, I 
am informed that the bankers of the United States have 
done nothing as Commissioners for the loan of 800,000 dol- 
lars, not having received from Colonel Humphreys the notice 
which they were instructed to wait for previous to their act- 
ing under this commission. They add, that under the present 
circumstances the loan would be altogether impracticable, 
and they cannot foresee when it will again be feasible. Of 
all this they have no doubt given information to you, and 
to the Secretary of the Treasury. 

In my letter of the 2nd instant I have mentioned the 
mutual dissatisfaction which has for some time prevailed 
among the allied powers, and I have before noticed the re- 
ports of a separate peace made by the King of Prussia. 
This fact seems at present to be put beyond a doubt, as the 
name of the minister who signed the Treaty on the part of 
Prussia appears in the papers of this day. 

cussion, turned them into French. Randolph wrote to Adams, February 25, 1795 : 
"You have judged right in supposing that the President could not be so tenacious 
of the advantage of corresponding in your own tongue, as to violate established 
forms. Certainly the supreme authority of a country must be submitted to in 
things of this kind. Nor is it expected, that you should persist in the right of using 
your own language even with the ministers, if it is likely to be unacceptable. The 
French minister here corresponds in French, the Spanish minister in Spanish, the 
Portuguese minister has been left at liberty to use the Portuguese, but practises 
the French, and the Dutch minister writes in French. The instruction to use 
your own was founded on caution ; but was never considered as indispensable." 
The rule governing the diplomatic representatives of the United States is to employ 
the English language in formal written communications to the governments to 
which they arc accredited. See Adams, Memoirs, IV. 327. 






1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 219 

Spain has also sent a minister to Paris to negotiate a 
peace, and two ministers on the part of the Empire are 
employed for the same purpose, one in Switzerland, and the 
other is said to be now at Paris. It seems to be an opinion 
prevalent here, as well as in England, which I mentioned 
in my first letter from thence, that the French Republic 
will be disposed to grant moderate terms to all the allies 
except Great Britain, and as the system of moderation ap- 
pears to be obtaining increasing ascendancy in the National 
Convention and throughout the Republic, the probability 
that England and France will be alone engaged at the open- 
ing of the ensuing campaign daily strengthens. 

As to this country, it is well known to you. Sir, how close 
a political connection has been maintained between its 
government and that of Great Britain since the Revolution 
here in the year 1787. But a connection still closer has 
subsisted with Prussia, which is cemented by the ties of 
blood between the consorts of the Stadtholder and of the 
hereditary Prince of Orange,^ and the King of Prussia, the 
former being his sister and the latter his daughter. Hitherto 
the British and Prussian influence here has been exerted in 
perfect union, but after this peace made by Prussia I think 
it it impossible they should long continue to harmonize. 

The Court of St. James will no doubt be very much dis- 
satisfied with that of Berlin, for making this peace, and a 
coolness between them must I think ensue. The Prussian 
influence here must be favorable to peace between this 
Republic and France, to which Great Britain cannot cer- 
tainly consent. 

But in the present situation of things in this country, 
peace has become an object of urgent necessity to the govern- 
ing power here. They imagine and perhaps not without 

^ The wife of the Hereditary Prince was Frederick-Louisa- Wilhelmina, of Prussia. 



220 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

foundation, that their existence depends upon their obtain- 
ing it. And for the very same reason the Patriots do not 
appear desirous for peace at all. They had rather submit 
to an external enemy than bear a yoke, in their minds more 
intolerable, of what they call internal oppression. I do not 
give this sentiment as that of the whole Patriotic party, 
who are far, very far from being united in their own politics. 
I cannot even pretend to say how extensive this temper may 
be, but from my observations hitherto, I cannot doubt but 
that numbers here would rather see the conquest of their 
country completed by the French, than a peace made by 
them with the government now established here. 

If therefore the French Republic will consent to terms of 
accommodation with the Stadtholder and the States Gen- 
eral, upon condition that they shall abandon their alli- 
ance with Great Britain,- the personal interest of the House 
of Orange and of the members of the States will dictate to 
them an acquiescence in the measure. The continuance 
of the war threatens immediate and total destruction to 
them, and it is not in the power of their ally, now they 
are abandoned by Prussia, and are like to be deserted 
by the Empire, to defend them. Example is epidemical 
among nations, no less than among individuals, and in 
this instance the court of Berlin will think itself justified 
by the imitation, and that of the Hague deem itself author- 
ized by the precedent. 

The mission of Mr. Fagel to London is supposed to be 
upon this subject. But if his object is to agree upon a 
joint negotiation, there does not appear any possibility 
that this proposal will produce any effect. 

The present British Ministry cannot with any consistency 
negotiate, and there is no present prospect of a change in 
the Administration. If this difficulty should be removed, 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 221 

another more insurmountable would occur, if the general 
opinion be well founded, that the Convention will not ne- 
gotiate upon any terms with Great Britain. Whether this 
disposition, if it really exists, will continue for any length of 
time, it is impossible to say. It is founded upon the extreme 
animosity against the British, which prevails at this time in 
France. But the public sentiment is in its own nature very 
fluctuating. National passions subside when the objects 
which excited them are removed. The character of the 
French people, however susceptible of ardent resentment, 
is far from being implacable, and the transition in the public 
mind from the most virulent hatred to indifference, and 
even to good will, often takes place with surprising rapidity. 
A peace, therefore, even between these two mighty rivals 
before the opening of the spring, may possibly take place, 
but cannot be rationally expected in the present state of 
things. 

If then the perseverance of Britain, or the resentment of 
France, should effectually preclude a general pacification, 
will the government of this country negotiate a separate 
peace ? In answer to this question I can only say that their 
external enemies are victorious, and if the war continues 
will in every probability be irresistible : that their internal 
disunion gives a strong hold to their invaders, even in the 
heart of their country ; and that the question remaining 
for them is between an unpleasant peace and total ruin. If 
self preservation be to political bodies an obligation para- 
mount to every other law, compact or stipulation, it can 
hardly be expected that the present alliance will be an in- 
superable obstacle to a separate peace between the two 
Republics. 

The French have hitherto made no distinction between the 
different partizans in the places where they have obtained 



222 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

possession. The Stadtholderians and Patriots share the 
same treatment, and no alteration is made in the general 
order of things. These circumstances serve to strengthen 
the hopes of peace, while the dissensions between the Allies 
strengthen the desire for it. 

The English troops discriminate as little as the French. 
They have made themselves equally obnoxious to all parties, 
and plunder and illtreat the Stadtholderians as much as the 
Patriots. A gentleman professedly of the governing party 
told me the people were much more afraid of the English 
than of the French, and after a variety of other observations 
expressive of his fears exclaimed, Peace ! Peace ! We must 
have Peace ! The violence and misconduct of the British 
troops is a fact established beyond a question by a public 
proclamation issued by the Duke of York, which you will 
doubtless have seen in the late British papers. I have there- 
fore not scrupled to mention it as a cause of complaint in 
the mouth of everyone here. As to the additional charges 
brought against them, implying a want of spirit as well as 
of conduct in them, and the imputation of their propensity 
to retreat, as well as the reports injurious to the imperitorial 
character of the Commander-in-Chief himself, representing 
him as indulging more in convivial pleasures than the ex- 
treme delicacy of his present situation renders proper, or 
the rigid severity of Dutch austerity deems decorous, I 
must consider all this as unwarranted scandal, which how- 
ever prevalent may be altogether groundless, and only 
proves that the allies are very much dissatisfied with one 
another. 

The Duke of Brunswick is hourly expected to take the 
command and his arrival is ardently desired by those who 
think the system of resistance still practicable. 

The appearance of internal opposition to the government 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 223 

is entirely quelled for the present. Mr, Van Staphorst is at 
Hamborough, out of the reach of this jurisdiction. Ivlr. 
Visscher is closely confined, and the subscribers to the peti- 
tion I have more than once mentioned to you have suffered 
themselves to be disarmed without resistance. 

November 8. Mr. Van Hees the agent of their High 
Mightinesses called on me, to give me notice that they had 
passed a resolution to acknowledge me in my public charac- 
ter. After which I asked him whether there was any in- 
telligence from the armies. Nimeguen he answered was 
heavily bombarded by the last accounts from thence, which 
were of yesterday. The news from Maestricht he said was 
very bad. "It is pretended," said he, "that it capitulated 
on the 4th." I suppose therefore there is no doubt of the 
fact. I told him that probably the campaign must soon 
terminate. "It must come to an end soon somehow or 
other," said he. "What can be done when the allies aban- 
don us ?" I asked him if the King of Prussia had certainly 
made peace .^ " So it is said, but the letters from Berlin deny 
it." What t The latest letters from thence. Generally, 
the letters from Berlin. He did not chuse, therefore, to 
answer my question as to the latest letters, yet the inference 
is not absolutely conclusive that they have letters from 
thence confirming the fact. 

I hope we shall soon have some agreeable intelligence from 
our own country. The western insurrection has a most 
disagreeable effect upon the credit and reputation of America. 
A thousand exaggerations of the fact are propagated with 
great avidity, our friends know not what to deny, the malev- 
olence of our enemies is gratified, and the advocates of 
universal freedom and humanity are afraid of losing the 
only country for which they can appeal for the practicability 
of their theories. I hope we shall soon relieve them from 



224 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

their alarms, and shew them once more the perfect image 
of united liberty and submission. 

With every sentiment of respect I remain, Sir, your very 
humble and obedient servant. 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, November 9, 1794. 
My dear Sir : 

Under the present circumstances of affairs in this country, 
I did not think it prudent to make any unnecessary delay 
in England, and accordingly left London of the 28th of last 
month. Our passage to Helvoet was short though not 
agreeable, the packet being very much crowded with 
passengers. We were only three days from London to this 
place. 

I had been told in London that I should perceive fewer 
symptoms of war in this country than I should leave behind 
me there; but I had no idea of finding everything so per- 
fectly quiet as it is. Excepting the course of conversation 
in company, you would imagine yourself to be in a land 
blessed with a profound peace. No confusion, no agitation, 
no aggregations in the streets, no appearance of exertion. 
I had almost said no symptom from any part of the people 
of feeling an interest in the fate of their country. You 
remember. Sir, how feeble the efforts of this people were 
when their war broke out with England in 178 1. Yet at 
that time the active spirit of liberty predominated. Patriot- 
ism was the popular idol, and the power which upon the 
whole governed the country rested much for its support 
upon the motives of public spirit. But now that the reins 
of government are held by a power, professedly founded 
upon mere force, a power which has always been at war with 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 225 

public spirit and considered patriotism as its deadly enemy, 
which has always dreaded enthusiasm and discountenanced 
the amour sacre de la patrie^ you may judge what a state of 
lifeless Imbecility characterizes the people, even at a moment 
so full of danger and dismay as the present. 

The Government meets with no Internal resistance. The 
appearance of opposition lately made at Amsterdam, has 
been completely crushed, and the petitioners have tamely 
delivered up their arms at command. Van Staphorst has 
fled, and Is safe at Hamburg. VIsscher Is In close confine- 
ment, and patriotism Is again compelled to hide Its head. 
This people I fear have lost that energy of character which 
once so honourably distinguished them. Had there been 
a common share of spirit displayed by the petitioners at 
Amsterdam, the consequences I am Informed would have 
been extremely different ; but it was a struggle between 
weakness and impotence. In which the former can scarcely 
be said to have obtained the victory, though the latter was 
certainly defeated. 

But passive obedience and non-resistance are one thing ; 
and the warm, animated zeal, which Is necessary for the 
defence of an Invaded country, the dauntless heart and the 
nervous arm, which Inspired and directed by the enthusiasm 
of liberty have heretofore performed miracles for the salvation 
of this as well as of other countries, are another. The strength 
of the government is sufficient to control the Inclinations of 
their adversaries within their walls, but it can hope nothing 
from their assistance. It can paralyze their limbs, but cannot 
arm them in its defence. 

They have to contend with enemies of a very different 
description, with armies powerful In numbers, under the 
most perfect discipline, of uncontrolable Impetuosity, and 
who pursue to the utmost every advantage they obtain. 

Q 



226 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

There is another circumstance which has added to the 
extreme debility which has characterized the defence of their 
frontier against the present invasion. The length of time 
elapsed since this country has been before engaged in a war 
by land has removed all the officers of martial experience 
from their troops, but especially from the command of their 
fortified towns. The usual system of patronage and pro- 
tection has conferred most of these places as sinecures upon 
favorites, and in the distribution of the places military merit 
has been deemed the most unnecessary and useless of all 
qualifications in the officer to be provided for. The benefit 
of the individual was the only consideration of importance, 
for as to the service required, where is the cowardice or 
stupidity that can be inadequate to the mere parade of a 
military government in time of peace ? 

But however suitable the post may be to the officer in 
peace, it seems the officer turns out very unsuitable to 
the post in war. So that when the day of trial comes, one 
commander resigns on account of his health ; another finds 
himself incapable to maintain his station from his old age. 
A third contrives means to be disgusted at some paltry 
pretence for taking offence ; and a fourth without ceremony 
surrenders as soon as his command is invested. I am told 
that all these things have really happened, and the most 
bitter execrations are vented against the Prince of Hesse, 
the late governor of Bois le Due, for capitulating as he did. 
Treachery and cowardice are both very liberally imputed 
to him by the partisans of this government, but I know not 
with how much foundation. A momentary popular odium 
is very often the lot of the best officer when unfortunate, 
and at such a point of time the voice of the people is far 
from being infallible. . . . 

It is to me a new thing under the sun, to see a people 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 227 

anxious to be conquered, and praying for the success of their 
enemies ; though not Indeed in the spirit of Christian hu- 
mlHty. This phenomenon now discovers itself more and 
more to my view. Since my arrival here the Intelligence 
has been generally unfavorable to the allies. The king of 
Prussia's peace is ascertained. Maestrlcht has capitulated, 
and NImeguen is severely bombarded ; at each of these 
several articles of news I have seen more than one Dutch- 
man's eyes sparkle with pleasure, and I have observed coun- 
tenances to fall at the transient rumors of successful sallies 
from both those towns, which have been invented and prop- 
agated to cheer the sinking spirits of the Orange party. . . . 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 6 [Edmund Randolph] 

Amsterdam, November 16, 1794. 
Sir : 

The Stadtholder returned to the Hague from NImeguen 
four days since. On the 14th I had the honor of an audience 
from him and delivered my credentials, so that the forms of 
my reception at this Court are finished.^ 

I came yesterday from the Hague to this city, where I 
hope to have better means of obtaining information which 
may be worthy of communication than I could at that 
place. 

In my last letter I mentioned the peace said to have been 
made by the King of Prussia as a fact almost ascertained. 
Since that it has again become more questionable, and at 
present Is even denied with great confidence. From various 
symptoms however I still venture to speak of it as an event 

^ "He was civil enough" is the entry in the Diary. An audience with the Prin- 
cess of Orange was given on December 4. 



228 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

which, if it has not yet already taken place, may be expected 
before spring. 

Nimeguen has met with the same fate as Maestricht, or 
rather with a worse, for it did not obtain a capitulation. 
The British troops in evacuating the place did not retrieve 
their character for good order and rigid discipline. 

By the capture of Maestricht an army of thirty-five 
thousand French troops is released to act elsewhere, and 
Breda and Gertruydenberg are said to be menaced. The 
whole number of the French troops who are now brought to 
bear upon this country is about ninety thousand men. Of the 
allies there are not more than thirty-five thousand to oppose 
them. I know not of any defensible fortress to balance this 
great inequality of numbers, and you can easily judge what 
the event probably will be under circumstances like these. 

The French troops I am just informed have already crossed 
the Waal, at Tiel. Nimeguen did capitulate. A gentle- 
man just told me he saw the convention, consisting of three 
articles. That a continuance of their customary rights and 
privileges is stipulated for the inhabitants. The allied 
troops evacuated the town and crossed the river previous 
to the capitulation, leaving only 800 men behind, who could 
not get over the river, the floating bridge having been burnt. 
The troops that crossed were exceedingly harassed in their 
passage, and met with great loss from the fire of their enemy. 
The crisis of this country's fate is approaching with great 
rapidity and peace, if they can obtain it, is become of despotic 
necessity to them. 

Upon my arrival here last evening Mr. Bourne called on 
me, and told me he had just come from seeing General 
Eustace,^ who had In the morning been arrested and had 

^ John Skey Eustace, who had served as aid to Major-General Charles Lee in 
the American War of Independence. See Lee Papers (New York Hist. Soc. Coll.) ; 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 229 

his papers seized by order of the magistracy of this city, 
that he was confined to his chamber with a guard over 
him, and his papers had been sent to the Hague. Nothing 
criminal had however been found among his papers, and he 
expected to be released as soon as an order should be ob- 
tained from thence. That the General had served In the 
French armies since the declaration of war between the two 
Republics, but, upon receiving the Proclamation of the 
President, declaring the neutrality of the United States, 
had immediately resigned his command and withdrawn from 
the service of France. 

This morning a gentleman of this city, a friend of General 
Eustace, called to see me, and requested me to Interpose In 
such manner as I should think proper In behalf of that 
gentleman as a citizen of the United States. I told him that 
as one of my fellow citizens that General was entitled to all 
the good offices and assistance that I could render him, but 
that no representation on my part would probably be of 
any service to him, If he had forfeited his right to the privi- 
leges of the American neutrality by his engagements In the 
French service. That I would endeavor to obtain permis- 
sion for access to him in his confinement, and would do every- 
thing to serve him In my power, consistent with propriety 
and the obligation of my own duty. 

Mr. VIsscher and the five other persons arrested for their 
concern In the remonstrance presented to the magistracy 
have been sentenced to six years hard labor In the common 
workhouse and perpetual banishment afterwards. The 
workhouse Is the customary place to which common male- 
factors are condemned. 

It is said that the severity of this punishment was owing 

Correspondence of French Ministers (Turner), 272; and Life and Correspondence 
of Rufus King, II. 295. 



230 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

to the representations of the British Ambassador, who 
insisted upon it as satisfaction for the reflections contained 
in the remonstrance against the British troops. 

November ly. I wrote a card this morning to the officer 
by whose command General Eustace was arrested, informing 
him that this gentleman had demanded the benefit of the 
treaties subsisting between this country and America, and 
requesting an order for access to him. The officer appointed 
this day at one o'clock for the purpose. And when I went 
to the house according to the appointment I found he was 
already released, though his papers are not yet returned to 
him. They have apologized in some measure to him, and 
the Grand Bailiff of this city gave as an excuse to me that 
their suspicions had been grounded upon the General's hav- 
ing been so lately in the service of France. 

Upon conversing with him afterwards I find that he has 
never served in the French armies, since the war with this 
country, and is therefore fully entitled to all the protection 
that our treaties can afford him. He is irritated, as may 
naturally be expected, at the treatment he has received, 
and it is not improbable that you will hear from him upon 
the subject in America. 

I hear of an opportunity for Philadelphia which obliges 
me to conclude for the present with the assurance that I 
remain, with sentiments of invariable respect and consid- 
eration, Sir, your very humble and obedient servant. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 7 [Edmund Randolph] 

Sir: Amsterdam, November 19, 1794. 

The opinion that a general peace will take place before the 
opening of the spring is still very prevalent, though I do 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAxMS 231 

not find any one who professes to believe it. The idea appears 
to be only founded upon the absolute necessity which is 
supposed to exist on the part of the combined powers to 
finish the war. 

With respect to this country, the letters which I have done 
myself the honor to write you since my arrival here will 
serve to shew the hopeless condition of the allies. I might 
perhaps spare you the trouble of reading an annoying detail 
of French success, which in all human probability must still 
continue, until their own moderation shall dictate the terms 
of their retreat, or the perseverance of their enemies to 
maintain an impracticable opposition shall plant the stand- 
ard of the French Republic upon the walls of Amsterdam. 

Britain, however, yet adheres Inflexibly to the continu- 
ance of the war, and this determination fully coincides with 
the wishes of the Patriotic party here. This extraordinary 
concurrence is no doubt extremely embarrassing to the 
government of the United Provinces, nor is it easy to con- 
ceive how they will extricate themselves from this critical 
predicament. A continuance of the war they have reason 
to expect will terminate in their utter destruction. A 
separate peace with France would no doubt be humiliating 
to them in the extreme, but it might at least serve to pro- 
long their existence, and it Is to be remarked that the 
declaration in favor of this measure originated first in 
Zeeland, the Province where the power of the Stadtholder 
is the most extensive and his influence the most universal. 

The Patriots are very sanguine in the expectation that 
France will make common cause with them, and will not 
treat at all without the total expulsion of the Stadtholder. 
But I confess I do not see at present upon what foundation 
their expectation stands. If there were any concert between 
them, it would necessarily be kept profoundly secret, and 



232 



THE WRITINGS OF [1794 



it is therefore impossible to say that none actually exists. 
I can only observe that I have not discovered anything upon 
which a probability of such a circumstance can be raised, 
and all the public appearances are against it. 

France lately renewed the declaration, that she will not 
interfere in the internal affairs of any other country. She 
makes no distinction between the different partisans in the 
places which have capitulated, nor does any particular 
animosity against the House of Orange appear at present, 
either in her public councils, or in her armies. So that a 
peace between the French Republic and the present States 
General does not appear to me to be an impossible event. 

It is now said that the Duke of Brunswick has positively 
refused the command of the allied army, or rather, that he 
annexed such conditions to his acceptance as could not be 
complied with. The dissatisfaction between the people of 
this country and their English allies continually increases. 
The complaints against the Commander-in-Chief become 
more and more grievous from day to day. The nature of 
them will be fully explained to you by the bearer of this 
letter. 

The intelligence of every kind relating to the war is only 
to be gleaned from the private letters which arrive from the 
invaded country. The Duke of York's^ defeat of the 19th 
of last month, an account of which I wrote you from London, 
was not publicly known at the Hague on my arrival there. 
Every unfavorable event Is suppressed as much as possible, 
and the printers of public newspapers are suspended In 
their employments for weeks and months together for pub- 
lishing simple facts, which happen to be disagreeable at 
Court. The liberty of the press and, indeed, every other 
species of liberty, are circumscribed within very narrow f 

1 Frederick (1763-1827), son of George III. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 233 

limits. Every traveller, as soon as he alights at an inn, 
must declare in writing his name, his occupation, his place 
of abode, whence he comes, where he is going, how long he 
means to stay, and by whom he is known in this country. 
General Eustace was arrested and had his papers seized, 
because he was accidentally detained here a day or two 
longer than he had thus signified his intention to remain. 
The meeting of the British Parliament is to be next week, 
and it is expected with much solicitude by the political 
speculators. The Portuguese Minister at the Hague, ^ 
happening to be here on a visit, as well as myself, and 
lodging at the same house, called on me last evening. It is 
hardly possible for a conversation at this time to turn upon 
any other subject than the prospect of peace. ^ He said he 
did not see how it could take place, as long as England should 
hold out. France had reconquered all her West India 
Islands in Flanders, and she would not certainly restore her 
conquests unless her own possessions should be restored 
to her. Without the consent of England there could be no 
return to the status quo, and England was not yet reduced to 
the necessity of resigning her acquisitions. The King has 
lately accepted the sovereignty of Corsica, which this 
gentleman considers as a very important accession to the 
British dominions, as facilitating very much their views for 
the extension of their trade in the Levant, by giving them 
a convenient port in the Mediterranean. This will be 
another motive for the obstinacy of Britain to persist in the 
war, and If she should become the sole combatant of France 
she could wage the war, which in that case would become 

* Chevalier d'Araujo. 

* "The King of Prussia's peace turns out to be a stock jobbing or trading specu- 
lation. The Spanish peace I suppose must be the same. The error, however, is 
only in chronology. It is only giving that as already done, which must be done 
very soon." To William Short, November 21, 1794. Ms. 



234 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

exclusively maritime, much more advantageously and with 
better prospect of success than she does at present. 

Speaking of the cause of complaint given by that power 
to the neutral nations, I observed that the system in which 
it originated was somewhat extraordinary. I found his 
ideas upon the subject perfectly coincided with ours. "A 
single town besieged," said he, "may be reduced by famine. 
The means may be within the power of the besiegers. The 
operation is of partial effect. The inhabitants in general 
suffer only the inconvenience of hunger, and the place 
surrenders. But to pretend and attempt to starve twenty- 
four millions of people, to cut off all the means of subsist- 
ence from a country situated like France, independent of 
the moral complexion of such a design upon which there 
is nothing to be said, it was merely on the point of prac- 
ticability a thing altogether new. He believed such a 
design was never formed before, and on the score of policy 
it was certainly the method to unite the whole force of 
every individual in France against the allies, and to give 
the national power an energy which nothing else could do 
so effectually." 

That plan is received almost universally in the same 
light, and as Mr. Araujo says it is the first attempt of the 
kind, so I think it will not very soon be again renewed. I 
think however that precedents of this kind may be found in 
the annals of British policy, and we were during the American 
war indebted to them for a similar intention. 

I this moment hear that an agreement for a temporary 
cessation of hostilities until further order has been agreed 
on by the officers of the contending armies on this and the 
other side of the Waal. This is considered as a prelimi- 
nary to winter quarters, to be taken on both sides, of which 
however I very much doubt. The weather grows cold, and 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 235 

a severe season is expected by everybody, though I know 
not exactly why. The Stadtholderians tell us, it will be 
favorable to them, as the French armies cannot keep the 
field with hard weather in this climate in winter. The 
Patriots say that the cold will only shut up the canals, 
defeat the benefit of an inundation, and make the best 
possible road for the French troops to march into Amster- 
dam. We shall soon see what foundation there is for all 
or either of these opinions. I am, etc. 



TO JAMES MONROE 

Amsterdam, November 22, 1794. 
Sir : 

I received last evening from London the papers which 
I now take the liberty to inclose, together with a letter from 
Mr. Boylston,^ the gentleman who chartered the vessel ^ 
in question, and with whom I have had a long and valuable 
acquaintance. 

His letter states to me, and with obvious truth, that an 
early as well as a favorable decision upon this case is of 
vast importance to the interests of the United States ; that 
in consequence of this capture an immediate rise of an 
hundred per centum of the premium upon insurance of all 
American ships took place, although it was already before 
that time double the ordinary peace premium. There are 
many other considerations which render any obstruction to 
the facility of our returning commerce from Great Britain 
at this time peculiarly injurious to us, and which you will 
certainly be able to appreciate at their proper value. 

Mr. Boylston estimates at nearly £700,000 sterling the 

* Ward Nicholas Boylston. 

* The brig Mary, Captain Titcomb. 



236 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

annual burthen of extraordinary Insurance to which our 
commerce is subjected by this rise of premium. His cal- 
culation I think is not much too high, and it becomes an 
object of the greater moment to the interest of our country, 
as so large a proportion of our insurance is made in England ; 
so that in its effects the principle of this capture operates 
for the present to the detriment of the United States, for 
the benefit of Great Britain. 

I am well assured, Sir, that your zeal for the interests 
of the United States In general, and for the security and 
efficacy of their rights to all your fellow citizens individually, 
is too ardent and active to be susceptible of any accession 
from my solicitations. It would therefore be unnecessary, 
though I hope it will not be improper for me to add, that in 
the particular instance upon which I now address you my 
feelings of private friendship coincide with my concern for 
the public welfare. That the gentlemen to whom the prop- 
erty was addressed and belonged are all personally known 
to me. That Mr. Gill is Lieutenant Governor of Alassa- 
chusetts, and Messrs. Head and Amory are among the most 
respectable citizens of Boston, and that in recommending 
the case to your attention I follow the Impulse of my Incli- 
nation no less than the dictate of my duty. 

I am happy. Sir, that this opportunity Is given me to 
return you my best acknowledgments for your kind offer 
of a good understanding and correspondence between us, of 
which my father Informed me at the time when I had the 
honor of being appointed to my present station. I should 
have notified you of my arrival here before this but for the 
interruption of the communication between France and this 
country, consequent upon the present state of affairs. 
When the regular Intercourse shall again be restored I shall 
feci myself honored by a correspondence as frequent and 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 237 

considerable as may consist with propriety and the public 
service. I am, etc. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 9 [Edmund Randolph] 

Amsterdam, November 24th, 1794. 
• •••••• 

I have made inquiry of several merchants concerned in 
the American trade, whether there was any ground of com- 
plaint arising from the want of execution attending any 
article of our treaty of commerce with their High Mighti- 
nesses .'* ^ The general answer has been, that many em- 
barrassments, burthens and discouragements have been 
laid upon our trade, and that there is real cause of com- 
plaint as to the fulfillment of the stipulations in the Treaty. 
But in endeavoring to ascertain particulars I have hitherto 
been unsuccessful. 

The merchants of Amsterdam are remarkably averse from 
communication relative to their trade. They are as evasive 
in answering any questions either as to its principles or its 
details as if they were all ministers of State, and although 
I have met with abundance of dissatisfaction with the 
oppression of our commerce, I have in vain requested and 
even solicited a particular statement of its grievances. It 
has been indeed promised from more than one quarter, and 
I am yet not without hopes of obtaining it, though I have 
hitherto been disappointed in my expectations. 

As far however as I have been able to procure informa- 
tion as to the foundation of the complaint it is upon two 
grounds. The one arising from the recent prohibition of 
sundry articles from exportation, and the other from the 

1 That of 1782. 



238 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

perception in some cases of heavier duties upon the American 
navigation than upon that of the most favored nation. 
With respect to the first they say, it is a direct violation of 
the article in the treaty upon the subject of contraband.^ 
I have never considered, however, that this article, which 
under different modifications is common to almost all 
treaties of commerce, implied a surrender of the contracting 
parties of their right to prohibit in cases of emergency the 
exportation of articles which become of the first necessity 
for their own use. I have however requested a list of the 
articles which have lately been thus prohibited ; but the 
gentlemen who are the most discontented with the prohibi- 
tion, and who at first promised me such a list, have since 
excused themselves from it, observing that at this critical 
moment, while the government itself is in so dangerous and 
precarious a situation, they think it would be most advis- 
able to postpone any representations upon this point, and 
wait for more quiet and peaceable times. The only articles 
I have heard mentioned in conversation are gunpowder and 
alum. I have been promised also a copy of a petition 
lately presented by the merchants concerned in our trade 
to the States General upon this subject. Perhaps some 
further information will result from the perusal of that. 
At present I can only say in general terms that the exporta- 
tion of several articles of merchandise has lately been pro- 
hibited from hence, that American vessels have not been 
excepted from the effect of this prohibition, and that the 
merchants in our trade complain of it as a grievance. 

The difi^erence between the duties to which our commerce 
and that of the most favored nation are severally subject, 

* Article XXIV. Monroe was raising in France questions of a like import upon 
the two articles of the treaty of 1778 governing neutral trade and contraband — 
articles XXIII and XXIV. Wriluigs of James Monroe, II. 41, lOi. 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 239 

appears to me more liable to a demand on our part for the 
enjoyment of the stipulation contained in the treaty. It is 
known to you, Sir, that for many years there has been in 
this country a chartered West India Company. They had 
a certain jurisdiction by virtue of which all the duties laid 
upon the commerce with the West Indies were made payable 
to them instead of the Admiralty, and in many instances 
there is a difference between the impositions upon the same 
articles imported under the two different administrations. 
Previous to our Revolution the trade with North America 
was comprehended within the jurisdiction of the West 
India Company, which at that time was more favorable 
to the commerce than if It had been within that of the 
Admiralty. At the expiration of the Company's charter a 
few years since, they made a bankruptcy, and surrendered 
all their affairs into the hands of a committee of the States 
General, to whom all their rights and powers are thus 
transferred. The commerce of the United States, however, 
continues upon the same footing on which it stood while 
they were British colonies, and by its connection with the 
privileges of the West India Company is subjected to much 
heavier impositions than It would be at the Admiralty, 
especially upon the article of spices. For since the partici- 
pation we have obtained in the carrying trade, In consequence 
of our own and the French Revolutions, our commerce with 
this country has become a very different thing from what it 
was In the days of our subjection, and its dependence upon 
the charter of the West India Company, which was then 
much to Its advantage, is now converted into a heavy burthen 
by exposing It to the charges of a greater tax than is levied 
upon the navigation of other nations in the carriage of the 
same articles. 

The merchants in our trade consider this as altogether 



240 



THE WRITINGS OF [1794 



inconsistent with the article of the treaty which places us 
upon the level of the most favored nation. I think so too, 
unless we have submitted to it by express agreement, which 
is said by one gentleman with whom I have conversed upon 
the subject to be the case. I have not yet got from Eng- 
land the books which I took from America, and have not 
an opportunity of consulting the treaties at present. I have 
thought it my duty to acquaint you at any rate with the 
circumstances, and shall equally forward any further in- 
formation as it shall come to my own knowledge. 

November 2Sth. The British Parliament is prorogued 
again till the thirty-first of December, and the funds rose 
in consequence of that measure two or three per cent. The 
prorogation is received as a portent of negotiations for a 
general peace. On the other hand the National Convention 
have appointed two commissioners to be employed upon 
business under the direction of the Committee of Public 
Safety, but secret even to the Convention itself. These 
facts combined with the capture of Nimeguen and Maes- 
tricht, the subsequent inaction of the armies on both sides, 
and Mr. Fagel's mission to London, all strengthen the 
expectation of peace. 

The Insurrection of Poland appears once more to be 
subdued. After a succession of severe defeats and the 
capture of Kosciuszko ^ and his successor in command, 
Warsaw has capitulated. The public sentiment even in 
England and this country was generally favorable to the 
cause of the Poles, but the destiny of that unhappy people 
must be completed. 

An occurrence of a diiTerent complexion is that La Fayette 
has made his escape from prison, together with two compan- 
ions one of whom however was retaken. This intelligence 

1 At Maciejowice, October lo. The Russians entered Warsaw November 8. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 241 

comes from very good authority by a letter from Breslau 
to a gentleman In this city. 

A cockade with the word Egalite marked upon it is cir- 
culated among the patriots in this city, who do not yet 
venture however to wear it. This is a symptom of an under- 
standing with the invading nation and of a concert among 
themselves in the party here which, though trivial in itself, 
is more strongly marked than any other that has reached 
me.^ I have the honor, etc. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 10 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, December 2, 1794. 
Sir : 

In my last letter I informed you of the opinion that was 
gaining ground in public, that a peace would be speedily 
effected, and of the occurrences generally known upon which 
that opinion was founded. Its prevalence was in no respect 
more distinguishable than In Its different effects upon the 
spirits of the two parties In this country. The countenances 
of the Orangists and of the Patriots had undergone a recip- 
rocal change. Their conversation betrayed symptoms of 
the same revolution. From the dejection of Impotence and 
despair, the formerly suddenly assumed a degree of confi- 
dence and assurance as great as victory itself could have 
inspired, and some of them with a significancy of nod and 
shrug, and all the grimace of mystery, hinted that peace 
was certainly negotiating at that moment, and the terms 
were so far settled and agreed on that the present ruling 
power In this country was perfectly secure. On the other 
hand the Patriots, by whom the arrival of the French is 

* He returned to The Hague November 28. 
R 



242 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

expected much more ardently and more devoutly wished 
than the Messiah by the children of Abraham, began to 
tremble and falter, and manifestly to discover their fears 
of being abandoned by their promised deliverers. It was 
said that Sweden and Denmark were to be jointly the media- 
tors between the belligerent powers, but the Orangists were 
in too great haste for peace to think of the forms and niceties 
of a mediation. In a numerous party composed of persons 
of this description at Amsterdam, I heard more than one 
of them express a great contempt for the idea of a media- 
tion, and affirm that the powers interested in the event would 
easily settle their differences, without the intervention of 
any mediator. The unexpected prorogation of the British 
Parliament was considered as full proof that the Ministry 
of that country had determined to negotiate, and as to any 
difficulty arising on the part of France, it scarcely appears 
to enter their minds in the form of a possibility. 

The next report was that the mediation was to be from the 
United States, and that Mr. Jay was already commissioned 
for the purpose. 

I last evening returned the visit of the Minister of Portu- 
gal, which he had made me at Amsterdam. Speaking 
upon the subject of peace he said it was in the power of this 
country to obtain it. She had only to speak the word, and 
it would be done. I said it did not appear an easy thing 
to me for the States General to make peace without the 
consent of Great Britain. But, said he, they can if they 
please compel that consent. I do not see how they could, 
but I did not press the conversation on that point any fur- 
ther. I told him I had heard much of the mediation of 
Sweden and Denmark. "Yes," said he, "and you Ameri- 
cans are to be concerned in the business too." I told 
him, that on Mr. Jay's first arrival in England there had 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 243 

been a report of his being employed for such an affair, and 
that since his signing the treaty with Lord Grenville it had 
been revived. But I had not believed it then, and do not 
believe it now. He said that there certainly had been some 
kind of proposals made to Mr. Jay on the subject, implying 
that they came from the British Ministry. "But," added 
he, "that Ministry have in reality no thoughts of peace; 
they mean to amuse and delude and gain time, but nothing 
more. They are absolutely bent upon another campaign. 
They will pretend to enter upon negotiations and to listen 
to terms, but it will all come to nothing. The Emperor is, 
indeed, extremely desirous of peace, but he will not make it 
without the consent of Great Britain. He will therefore 
make one feeble, ineffectual campaign more." 

As this conversation was neither official nor confidential, 
you will justly appreciate the dependence to be placed in the 
opinion thus expressed. I have thought it my duty to give 
it you as accurately as I am able, especially as it concerns in 
some measure the United States themselves. 

The determination of the British Ministry to pursue the 
war is now public, and the Orangists again begin to droop 
the head, and speak of mediation as a desirable thing, 

I am not of the opinion of the gentleman of Portugal, that 
peace is so much within the power of this country ; they 
cannot even abandon their allies and become their enemies, 
without extreme danger to themselves. Thirty thousand 
British troops are upon their territory ; though unable to 
resist the progress of the enemy they are amply competent 
to the destruction of their friends, and what apprehensions 
are to be entertained as to the avowed hostility of those whose 
very protection is dreaded like a pestilence 1 

The magistracy of Amsterdam notwithstanding their 
severity against the presenters of the famous petition had 



244 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

come to a resolution, as I am told, not to admit foreign troops 
into their city. A few days since a body of 1500 men from 
the English army appeared before Delft. Their presence 
was so much deprecated by the inhabitants that the gates 
were shut against them, and the magistracy, yielding to the 
popular impulse, resolved that they should not be admitted 
into the city. The Duke of York has been expected here 
since yesterday and has I presume arrived. The only ground 
of his visit that I have heard mentioned is that he comes to 
complain of the exclusion given to his troops at Delft, and 
to obtain a counter order and satisfaction in this respect. 
It is not probable that the force of the popular sentiment will 
stand against the uncontrolled dominion of the British 
influence. . . . 

TO JOHN JAY 

The Hague, December 2, 1794. 
Dear Sir : 

On my return here at the close of the last week from 

Amsterdam I received your favor of the 24th ultimo, and 

request you to accept my thanks for the communications 

it contains. By public report I had already heard not only 

that the treaty was signed,^ but the pretended purport of 

many articles of its contents. I had already felt myself 

obliged to leave ardent and in some instances inquisitive 

curiosity in the same suspense in which I had found it upon 

this subject. Upon the state of the negotiation when I left 

London I could give our friends here no other information 

than what resulted from public report in that place from 

which all I had collected was that the affair was in a probable 

train of settlement. Since the receipt of your letter I have 

^ The treaty was signed November 19. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 245 

taken the liberty to mention the stipulation which you ob- 
serve requires not to be kept secret. 

The desire of peace among all the friends and supporters 
of the government in this country is animated to the highest 
degree by the prevailing opinion of an irresistible necessity. 
The task of essentially contributing to reconcile opposing 
interests to preserve dignity from humiliation and to har- 
monize discordant circumstances is in the public opinion 
once more assigned to the same person who in that opinion 
has recently performed it with so much ability. The hopes 
which have been indulged in this particular are at this mo- 
ment however restrained by the general Idea that an allied 
government is Irrevocably determined upon the experiment 
of another campaign. 

I have been informed since my return from Amsterdam 
that Mr. Voltravers is gone to England. He made similar 
application to that mentioned in your letter to me for which 
he assigned the same reason. I told him that such an ap- 
pointment from me would certainly afford him no protec- 
tion In England, and even If it could, a compliance with his 
request on my part was Inconsistent with my ideas of pro- 
priety. 

I received this day from Amsterdam a Baltimore news- 
paper of 30th September. It contains no intelligence of 
consequence. 

The armies In this country do not at present appear to be 
very active. The Duke of York is here. There appears to 
be some difficulty about the reception of British troops Into 
the cities. It is said the magistracy of Amsterdam have 
taken a resolution against the measure as It respects that 
capital. 

I am with every sentiment of respect and attachment, 
Dear Sir, your very humble and obedient servant. 



246 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, December 3, 1794. 
My Dear Sir: 

I inclose herewith a letter from Mr. Dumas, which he 
requested me to transmit. The old gentleman's health 
appears to be very good, and he looks not older than he did 
when you saw him last. But oppression has had its pro- 
verbial effect upon him, and he can write, think, nor talk 
about anything but representative democracy and Joel 
Barlow. 

Last week at Leyden I saw our old friend Professor Luzac,^ 
who is at this time Rector Magnificus of the University. 
He received us with great cordiality, and I found him in his 
political sentiments moderate and rational. The instance 
is rare, and accordingly he suits neither of the parties in 
this country. The "Tories call him Whig, and Whigs a 
Tory," because he neither wishes to be the slave of the ruling 
power, nor to see his country liberated by means of being 
conquered. 

There has been much talk about peace, sometimes with, 
sometimes without mediation. One day Sweden and Den- 
mark are to be joint mediators, the next the United States 
alone are to perform that part. This moment we are told 
the Baron de Stael has left Stockholm, and the moment after 
we find it is Mr. Jay who has gone from London to Paris. 
Amidst all these reports there is no real prospect of peace 
whatever. 

If the affairs of this country had not been so often re- 
trieved from the very brink of the precipice, I should think 
them at this moment absolutely desperate. They all think 
them so, and Mr. Fagel, the greffier, has been at London 

^ John Luzac. 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 247 

ever since I arrived here, to solicit ineffectually their inex- 
orable ally to join in a negotiation for peace. 

The subserviency of these people to the will of Great 
Britain is not at this time altogether voluntary. They 
cannot disencumber themselves of their protectors. It is 
their misfortune to be defended by thirty thousand allies, 
who would be more fatal as enemies than they are serviceable 
as friends. There is but a single step in the transition, and 
from the conduct of the British troops, one would imagine they 
had already taken it. It is hardly possible to conceive how 
much their assistance is dreaded. The cities shut their gates 
againstthem,all ranksof people equally detestand shun them ; 
and, with what justice I am unable to say, the unpopularity of 
the commander is not less conspicuous than his rank. . . . 

The British Ambassador here. Lord St. Helen's, alias Fitz- 
herbert,^ did not return my visit of notification. He gave an 
entertainment yesterday, intended for the Duke of York, who 
was expected here but did not come. The Court of the Stadt- 
holder assisted at this entertainment. The Ambassador 
sent me an invitation. I sent him for answer that I was 
engaged, as was really the fact. I shall see him no more. 

This circumstance is in itself so trivial that I have not 
mentioned it to the Secretary of State in my letter of yes- 
terday to him. I do not wish to commence a diplomatic 
career by splitting hairs of etiquette. 

Yet I am desirous that the circumstance should be known 
to Mr. Randolph and to the President. If you will please 
communicate it to the former, the object will be answered. 
I am, etc.^ 

lAUeyne Fitzherbert, Baron St. Helens (1753-1839), appointed ambassador 
at the Hague, March 25, 1794. He was one of the British peace commissioners at 
Paris in 1782. 

2 "By the capture of Antwerp a difficulty has occurred, upon which the gentle- 
men at Amsterdam have no doubt already written you. The annual interest of 



248 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 15 [Edmund Randolph] 

FIague, December 22, 1794.^ 
Dear Sir :..... 

December 23. I this morning paid a visit to Mr. Van der 
Spiegel, the Councillor Pensionary of Holland, whom I have 
hitherto not been able to see on account of his sickness part 
of the time since I arrived, and having twice been so un- 
fortunate when I went to visit him as to find him so much 
engaged that he could not see me.^ 

the loan made there [in December, 1791] of three millions of florins is, by the 
tenor of the obligations made payable at the compting house of Mr. De Wolf, and 
the bankers here [at Amsterdam] have annually remitted the money to Ant- 
werp for the purpose. As the circulation of assignats is compulsive, the Bra- 
banters, holders of the American obligations, are apprehensive of receiving their 
interest in that currency, and our bankers have not transmitted the money for the 
interest that becomes due for the last year. It may be added that many of their 
creditors are now emigrants, and may possibly have other apprehensions for the 
fate of this principal as well as of the Interest. One of these called upon me at 
Amsterdam last week to enquire whether I could give him any relief. I told him 
that I had neither instructions nor power relating to that loan, but would readily 
transmit any representation he wished to make ; and I did not doubt but the United 
States would do their creditors full justice. He said an expedient had already been 
adopted by the court of Denmark upon the same occasion, which had been satis- 
factory to their creditors in their Brabant loans, and which, If equally adopted by 
the United States, would very much accommodate him and many others In the same 
predicament. It was to declare that the holders of their obligations might receive 
their interest at Copenhagen Instead of Antwerp, and that they might exchange 
the obligations themselves for others bearing the same interest." To the Secretary 
of the Treasury [Alexander Hamilton], December 5, 1794. Ms. 

^ On December 11, he removed to the house of Mr. Jehn, HofFstraat. 

'Van der Spiegel had been active in effecting the revolution of 1787, and was 
rewarded by the office he now held. He was a "man of letters and talents, raised 
(.iccording to the language which has hitherto been fashionable even in this coun- 
try) from an humble origin to consideration and eminence; but elevated by the 
Stadtholder's victory to the most important elective office of the union." To 
Secretary of Stale, February 5, 1795. Ms. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 249 

I told him I had some time since presented a memorial to 
their High Mightinesses upon the subject of an American 
vessel captured by a privateer with a Dutch Commission, 
carried into the Island of St, Martin's, and her cargo there 
condemned by the Court of Admiralty.^ That I knew not 
what had been done with my memorial but took the liberty 
to solicit his attention to it. He appeared not to know any- 
thing of my memorial, and said it had probably been referred 
to the Council of the Colonies, that he could not conceive 
how they should take an American vessel at St. Martin's, 
between which and the United States there was a commerce, 
and that it would be necessary to obtain information on the 
subject. I told him that in my memorial I had stated that 
documents to prove the facts were in my possession, to 
which he made no reply. 

He asked me if I had heard anything from America of a 
discontent {mecontentement) among the negroes of Demarara. 
I answered I had not, but mentioned the state of health 
existing both in Philadelphia and Baltimore, testified by 
your letter of November 8. He said he had no letters from 
America of later date than September. That the news 
from England by yesterday's post mentioned as a mere 
rumor these movements of Demarara, but he presumed had 
there been any foundation for the report, it would have made 
its way from other quarters. 

I observed that many persons concerned in the naviga- 

1 The Wilmington Packet, Moses Andrews, master, and the property of Jeremiah 
Condy and Company of Charleston, S.C. She sailed from Bordeaux in July, 1793, 
for the island of St. Thomas, and was captured, September 6, by the Elynda, 
a privateer schooner, William Palmer, master, and belonging to Jean Baptista 
Franfois de Bragelongne, of the island of St. A'lartins. The discussion extended 
over some years, and owing to the changes in the government and the doubtful 
situation of the Dutch colonies, remained undetermined when Adams left the 
Hague in 1797. 



2SO THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

tion and commerce between this country and the United 
States had complained to me that it was subjected to re- 
strictions which were extremely inconvenient, that a regu- 
lation prescribing the passage north about to American 
vessels, and requiring bonds of treble the value of goods 
shipped, conditioned that they shall be landed at the place 
for which they are cleared, and an express declaration that 
capture by the French shall not be understood to be an ex- 
emption from the penalty, was equivalent at this season 
to a complete prohibition. That I had known lately an 
Instance of an American vessel obliged to go home in ballast 
in consequence of these regulations, and had reason to 
suppose others in the same predicament; that as the inter- 
ests of the United States were concerned in the freedom of 
the navigation of their citizens, I felt myself obliged to make 
these observations to him. 

He said that "as to navigation at the present season the 
severity of the weather was such as to occasion for some 
time an obstruction to it almost total. That the regula- 
tions I mentioned were common to all nations;" and, said 
he, ^^ our own subjects are also bound by them. They had 
been adopted because experie7ice had shown that vessels 
going through the channel could easily either slip Into some 
of the ports of France, or cause themselves to he taken. That 
as experience had proved the necessity of some regulation, 
some of the merchants of Amsterdam had proposed that 
of going the northern passage, and the gentlemen surely 
could not complain of the effect of their own measure." I re- 
plied that any consent given by particular merchants of 
Amsterdam could not at any rate be a support to the regu- 
lation at present, when the season rendered the passage 
north about almost Impossible, and was doubtless confined 
to that part of the year when that passage is convenient 



17941 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 251 

or practicable. He said it was not a consent of tlie gentle- 
men but their own proposal, and if they were not satisfied 
with the effect of their own measure, they might address 
themselves. 

He inquired of me whether I knew if General Eustace 
was yet gone ? I answered he was. He said that his con- 
duct here was very suspicious. That he wore a French 
uniform, that he saw very suspicious persons here ; that 
as he declared he had left the French service in compliance 
with the requisition of American neutrality, some regard 
had been shown him in that consideration, which he did not 
deserve in any other. I said nothing on this subject. 

I then told him I had instructions relative to a difficulty 
which had been made against the admission of a consul 
from the United States in one of the West India Islands 
belonging to this Republic. He said the Colonies had no 
free commerce. That by their old and original Constitu- 
tion no foreign nation whatever could carry on any trade 
with them ; that as there could be no foreign legitimate 
commerce to protect, there could be no room for the exer- 
cise of consular functions ; as to any contraband that might 
be carried on, a consul had never been admitted to encour- 
age that. 

I said that by the treaties of commerce subsisting between 
their High Mightinesses and the United States, the stipula- 
tion for the reciprocal admission of consuls was without 
any limitation,^ and it was understood by the government 
of the United States to extend as well to the ports in America 
as elsewhere. He rejoined that it was only meant the ports 
of the Republic in Europe. That it was an ancient difference 
{demele) that they had had with France, who had always 
insisted upon having consuls in their East India colonies, 

^ Article XXI of the treaty of 1782. 



252 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

but which she had never obtained. That It had been an 
invariable rule observed with respect to all other nations, 
and was founded on the reason he had mentioned, that as 
they could have there no legal commerce, so there could be 
no occasion for the functions of a Consul. 

Such was the substance of a conversation upon which I 
think it unnecessary to make any observations except to 
mention the reason which induced me to speak of the regula- 
tion requiring bonds as above mentioned, and also that upon 
which I said nothing in reply to his observations respecting 
General Eustace. The first was because the regulation, 
though in word it Is universal In its application, yet from the 
nature of things Its operation is. If not exclusively, at least 
more extensively prejudicial to the American navigation 
than to any other. I was In hopes that a mere statement 
of the circumstances would at least discover his dispositions 
as to an alteration. In this particular I was not disap- 
pointed, but as to the quality of the dispositions you will 
form an accurate opinion of them from the whole tenor of his 
conversation, which It Is unnecessary for me to anticipate. 

As to his reflections upon General Eustace, and the asser- 
tion that they had dealt with him more tenderly than he 
deserved out of deference to the United States, I could not 
assent to what he said conformably to my opinion, and I 
could not dissent without making myself at least a party to 
the cause of that gentleman, which I had always given him 
to understand was not my Intention without orders to 
justify me. 

I did not think the treatment he received here gave this 
government any title to acknowledgments on the part of 
the United States.^ 

One of their citizens, who had served in their armies in 

1 "Visit to Grand Pensionary. Began well, ended ill." Ms. Diary. 



1794] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 253 

a respectable station and attained a high rank in those of 
France before the war between the two Republics, and which 
he had quitted to preserve the privileges of his country's 
neutrality, is arrested, has a guard set over his person ; his 
papers are seized, sent away the distance of twenty-five 
miles, undergo an examination, are found to contain nothing 
criminal in them, upon which he is released. The liberty, 
the property of an American citizen, the security of his 
dwelling place, the Intimacy of his private correspondence, 
all are violated, without any sort of Intimation either of the 
design or of the execution to the Minister of the United 
States here, or to their Vice Consul then residing at the 
place where the arrest takes place. Nothing is found upon 
him even sufficient to support suspicion already roused. 
The only ground of the proceeding pretended is that he 
wore a French uniform, and saw suspected persons. 

I could see nothing in this transaction that merited so 
much as my approbation in the capacity of my country's 
representative. 

On the other hand, I was sensible that the particular 
situation of this government at the moment, surrounded 
by foreign and filled with domestic enemies, afforded some 
excuse for extraordinary measures, that a French uniform 
publicly worn would naturally appear to the jealous con- 
firmation strong; that an intimacy with persons in open 
and avowed aversion to the ruling power (though free and 
reputable citizens, exempt from all legal pursuit,) would 
give some plausibility to the severities of fear, and that 
except in the momentary violence off"ered to the principles 
and feelings which we hold dear, no material injury had 
eventually been suffered by the individual. That the in- 
ternal proceedings of one government ought not hastily to 
be arraigned by the servant of another nation, and that no 



254 THE WRITINGS OF [1794 

interest of urgency required of me at this time to give of- 
fence. I therefore thought it most advisable to remain 
totally silent upon the subject, and if I am to say anything 
to them about it, to wait for the instructions of the Presi- 
dent and your's, Sir, for my authority. . . . 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, December 21, 1794. 

• •••••• 

We have at this moment a rumor, which has darted like 
lightning through the whole Province of Holland, and which 
is propagated in such a manner, that there can be no doubt 
but it is indirectly countenanced by the Court. It is that 
two commissioners are appointed to proceed immediately 
to Paris for the negotiation of a peace, and Mr. Brantzen,^ 
the former ambassador extraordinary in France, and Mr. 
Repelaer, a burgomaster of Dort, are named as the persons. 
This intelligence is probably not true, . . . because it is 
hardly conceivable that Britain should consent to a separate 
negotiation on the part of this country, or that she should 
join in a general negotiation as yet; and it is equally 
difficult to suppose that the court here, that is the governing 
power, should so far disencumber itself from British thral- 
dom, as to negotiate separately and in a public manner for 
peace without their consent. . . . 

Among the difficulties with which the government is 
compelled to struggle, the want of money is one of the most 
important. The weight of taxation with which these 
Provinces are burdened in ordinary times is well known to 
you. It has already been aggravated to the extremity of 

'Gerard Brantsen (1735-1810) had been ambassador to France, 1782-1787, and 
again held the same appointment after 1806. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 255 

sufferance, yet the public treasury is empty. Tlie public 
credit of course is proportionably impaired. The obliga- 
tions of the Province of Holland, which you have always 
known at par, and generally higher, have depreciated to 55 
and even 50 per cent. New loans have been attempted 
and totally failed. The dangerous and extreme resource 
of a paper currency has already been resorted to, and an 
emission of five millions of guilders has taken place to supply 
the impending contingency of public payments. The cir- 
culation of this paper, it is said, will be voluntary as to the 
people in general, and compulsive only upon the persons in 
office. But this regulation must be intended only to facili- 
tate the introduction of the paper to the public, and there is 
little reason to doubt that its acceptance in all payments will 
be enforced very soon by the sanction of the Law. . . . 

I perceive that the Dutch resident at Philadelphia does 
not write to his constituents so frequently, nor give them 
so particular accounts of American affairs, as would be neces- 
sary to give them entire satisfaction. If he is well disposed 
towards our country, and would be likely to make a just 
representation of things, I could wish he had some friend 
who should in a delicate manner intimate this circumstance 
to him. It would certainly render him a service, and might 
be useful to the interests of the United States. . . . 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 17 [Edmund Randolph] 

Hague, January 3, 1795. 

This morning the Charge des affairs of Sardinia ^ paid me a 
visit, and appeared to be exceedingly fearful of the events 

^ Italics represent what was written in cipher. The charge was M. Plenti. 



256 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

which a continuance of the present severe weather may 
produce. He said the Court and the States, he understood, 
were determined not to move from hence at any rate. That 
the ministers of Sweden ^ and Denmark ^ were resolved not 
to move, and those of the belligerent powers were in an 
embarrassing position, as their departure would have a bad 
effect upon the common cause, In the opinion which it 
would spread in public that the state of affairs is desperate, 
and their continuance here would expose them to be treated 
as enemies. That for his own part he should feel very much 
embarrassed in the predicament had he not recently re- 
ceived Instruction in case of events to withdraw to Eng- 
land. That the Ministers of Sweden and Denmark had offered 
to receive and protect his movables that he could not carry off, 
but that he had rather lose all, than give an alarm by trans- 
porting his goods from his home. He therefore made me tivo 
proposals. First, that if I wished he would sell me his 
furniture and the lease of his house, which is at a low rent 
and would be convenient enough for me. The other, that I 
should take a simulated sale of them, and have the use of them, 
in order to cover the property ; that I should thereby render him 
a most important service. 

Though It would be extremely agreeable to me to perform 
any good office for one of my diplomatic brothers, which might 
tend to establish a claim to gratitude towards my country, yet 
I cannot conceive myself justified In any departure from the 
obligations of the severest neutrality for that purpose. 

Upon the second proposal, therefore, I could not hesitate 
a moment In forming my determination. 

As to the other, which would at the same time suit my 
own convenience, and comply with his wishes without in- 
fringing In the minutest particular upon the rights of others, 

' Comte de Lowenhielm. * Schubart. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 257 

I told him I would think of it, and give him my answer 
to-morrow morning. 

Upon reflection however I have concluded to reject thezvhole, 
because if the events apprehended by him should really 
take place, I feel the importance of establishing the most 
unequivocal claim to all the regard, which the laws of 
nations in similar cases attribute to the character which 
I bear. American property to a large amount has already 
been put under my immediate protection, and it is not 
improbable that I may be under the necessity of using my 
exertions for the indemnity of much more. In order to 
retain in full perfection all the rightful means in my power 
to serve my own fellow citizens, if the occasion should require 
it, I see the necessity not only of avoiding every act but 
every cause of suspicion ^ that might tend to impair them. 
The measure, though perfectly innocent, would probably 
be observed, and might at least occasion doubts and jealous- 
ies which would weaken the confidence upon which the full 
possession of my neutral privileges may depend. 

These are only two among a considerable number of appli- 
cations which are frequently made to me on either side of 
the warring parties, and wherein I find myself obliged to 
refuse what is asked of me as a favor. It is a disagreeable 
task to refuse offices of kindness, but I find it not less 
necessary than unpleasant. 

It seems from the conversation which I have just related, 
that the Swedish and Danish Ministers offer without scruple 
to cover property liable to the laws of war, nor do they think 
[it] necessary to he secret in pursuing this conduct. It will 
no doubt give them opportunities to render most essential ser- 
vices, and may entitle them to gratitude which is a good in- 
strument in the hands of a negotiator, 

* Not in cipher. 



258 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

I, too, by this singular concurrence of circumstances have 
this advantage in my power, and have no doubt but I might 
easily make myself very busy in the use of it. It might be 
useful ; I will not say it would be unjust. It is not, I think, 
expedient. I have, etc. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 18 [Edmund Randolph] 

Hague, January 7, 1795. 

• •••••• 

In the meantime some feeble hopes of relief are still en- 
tertained from the event of their negotiations at Paris. It 
is very questionable whether the authority of their Commis- 
sioners extends to the terms which it may be expected will 
be required, and which it should seem the Convention are 
now in a situation to dictate. They seem here to have made 
up their minds for an abandonment of the British alliance, 
and there will be probably no difficulty in that particular. 
But whether they are yet prepared to substitute the French 
alliance in its stead, and to go to war with those who are now 
defending them ; whether this measure will not be required 
as an indispensable condition to the accommodation, remains 
a problem still to be solved. There is indeed one uncer- 
tainty more which is really the greatest anxiety of the Court 
party, though they do not mention it. 

They are fearful that conditions specially unfavorable to 
the authority of the House of Orange will be required, con- 
ditions to which they are determined not to consent, because 
it would only confine to them the ruin, which at the worst 
they suppose will be general, and this is a species of devo- 
tion to which they are not inclined. 

In the meantime the business of which I wrote you in 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 259 

my No. II is still transacting. The two persons'^ I therein 
mentioned were at Paris before the Commissioners Brantzen 
and Repelaer. They obtained passports, their errands being 
known, and those who sent them yet hope their success. 

It may be concluded from these circumstances that the 
destiny of this country is now in the hands of the French 
Convention. With a public commission in behalf of the 
present ruling power, and a secret one treating for the Patriots, 
they may chuse according to their ideas of their own interest, 
and close with those who offer the best terms. 

In considering that the real interest of France must be 
effectually to detach this Republic from the alliance with 
Britain, it cannot escape reflection that her strongest se- 
curity will consist in a Revolution, at least partial, in the 
government. 

The negotiation of the moment is avowedly the effect of 
necessity, and it is not even pretended by those who conduct 
it that it is accompanied with a sincere desire of returning 
friendship. To the whole party France is an object of de- 
testation and Britain of reverence, which no generosity 
can remove, which no violence and ill treatment can cancel. 
This truth cannot be more forcibly demonstrated than by 
the temper which evidently prevails. For while the moment 
of impending ruin extorts a cry for mercy, the determination 
to repay it with ingratitude is not denied, and cannot be 

^ See p. 254, supra. Italics represent cipher. Monroe has outlined the offers 
made to the Convention by these Dutch agents. Writings of James Monroe, II. 
188. The mission of Brantsen was undertaken too late. It demanded the resti- 
tution of what had been conquered, and the withdrawal of both the French and the 
allied armies and the neutrality of Holland. In return the sovereignty and inde- 
pendence of France would be recognized. France desired a treaty of alliance, and 
to this the commissioners would not consent. The "patriots" of Holland sent to 
Paris as their representatives Blauw and Irhoven van Dam, and set up a claim for 
recognition as against Brantsen and offered full submission to France. 



26o THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

concealed. On the other hand, by changing the possessors 
of the administrative power, France will have in these 
Provinces a zealous and affectionate ally, bound to her by 
the same ties which now attach them so inseparably to her 
rival. The system of policy adverse to the power of the 
Stadtholder was for this reason always pursued by France 
under the Monarchy, and one would expect it to be renewed 
with more powerful energy, now that the ardent spirit of 
congenial liberty is superadded to all the original motives 
that supported it. 

From the delays which were thrown in the way of the Com- 
missioners on their route to Paris, and the absolute refusal 
of an armistice, nothing auspicious to the government which 
employs them can be drawn. The partizans of the Court 
therefore fear much for the event. But they are not with- 
out hopes arising from another source. They flatter them- 
selves that the moderate party, which still retains the as- 
cendancy in the National Convention, are disposed to tread 
back the steps of their own Revolution further than they yet 
venture to avow ; that the day of French Republicanism is 
really past; that the night of their former government is 
rapidly returning, and that the principles of counter revolu- 
tion will operate efficaciously, though in secret, to save the 
existing Government of this country from ruin. . . . 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 20 [Edmund Randolph] 

Amsterdam, January 19th, 1795. 
Dear Sir: 

In compliance with the request of the American bankers 
I came yesterday to this place, and arrived just at the mo- 
ment when symptoms began to appear of a popular fer- 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 261 

mentation, which still continues, and of which it is impossible 
to foresee the result.^ 

On Saturday the 17th the French troops entered and took 
possession of Utrecht by virtue of a capitulation. The 
usual government is preserved, and the prisons were pre- 
vented from being thrown open. 

Yesterday morning a flag arrived here with a letter from 
General Daendels ^ to General Golofkin, the commander of 
the garrison in this city, commanding him and the garrison 
to lay down their arms, and evacuate the place. It is to be 
observed, by way of explanation to this order, that the garri- 
son consists altogether of troops who have already been 
made prisoners of war by the French, and have stipulated 
not to serve against them during the war. 

At about noon a deputation from the former citizen militia, 
who were disarmed at the period of the Revolution in 1787, 
made application to the magistrates of the city, demanding 
the restoration of their arms, promising, if they were satis- 
fied in this demand, to maintain the tranquility of the 
city. 

At about four in the afternoon an officer from the French 
army named Krayenhoff ^ came with a flag and exhibited 

1 At the request of the American bankers in Amsterdam Adams went to that 
place on January i8. He left The Hague in the morning and reached Amsterdam 
at about four in the afternoon, and "found it a moment of crisis." 

* Hermann Wilhelm Daendels (1762-1818) was a major in the brigade of Gueldre 
in 1787, and found refuge in France, where he became lieutenant-colonel in a foreign 
legion under Dumouriez. He was promoted and served as a general of a division 
in the army of the North, and taking part with Pichegru in the conquest of Holland, 
he entered, June, 1795, the service of the Batavian republic as lieutenant-general. 
He took part in the campaigns and revolutions of that country, was sent (1807) to 
the Dutch East Indian colonies as governor-general, and, recalled by Napoleon, 
shared in the Russian campaign. See Mendels, //. IF. Daendels (1890). 

* Cornelis Rodolf Theodore Krayenhoff (1758-1840), a physician and political 
agitator. He attained rank in the French army as a superintendent of fortifica- 



262 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

a commission constituting him commander of the city. 
He is himself a Batavian and went from this city a short 
time since. A criminal prosecution was commenced against 
him, and tomorrow is the day upon which he was to appear 
before the Court of Schepens. 

His demand of the magistrates was the abdication of their 
authority, but, as I am not yet authentically informed of 
the particulars, I shall wait for more certainty to communi- 
cate them. 

At the edge of the evening the three-colored cockades 
began to appear in the streets. The night was noisy. The 
song of the Carmagnole and the Marseillaise hymn resounded 
in the streets, but no violence was attempted. 

8 o'clock P.M. The day has passed without any sinister 
accident. At about 10 this morning the three-colored flag 
was displayed upon the State house. A provisional munici- 
pality appointed by the Batavian Revolutionary Com- 
mittee have entered upon the exercise of their functions. 
They sent a deputation to the Regency, thanking them for 
their former services, and informing them that there was no 
further occasion for them in future. In the afternoon they 
liberated from prison Mr. Visscher and the other persons 
confined for affairs of state. The tree of liberty was erected 
before the State House. The national cockade has become 
almost universal. The orange colored one however is still 
worn by the former garrison, who appear to be continued 
upon guard and patrole as usual. The Revolution was 
operated with not more than twenty-five or thirty French 
hussars within the city. It is not even certain whether a 
larger body has yet been introduced. 

tions, but after 1813 he returned to Holland, accepted the rule of the House of 
Orange, and became a baron and a lieutenant-general. He was now adjutant gen- 
eral to Daendels' force. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 263 

Mr. Nicholas van Staphorst is a member of the new munic- 
IpaUty, and is expected in town tomorrow. 

The Stadtholdcr with his family and court left the Hague 
yesterday at about ten o'clock and embarked at Schevening ; 
they will probably go to England.^ 

January 20th. This afternoon General Pichegru with a 
body of troops amounting to two or three thousand men 
arrived in the city. The Regency of Haerlem has also been 
dismissed, and the French forces are also in possession. 
They are likewise at Dort, and a few days more will give 
them complete and undisputed possession of the Province 
of Holland. I have, etc. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 21 [Edmund Randolph] 

Amsterdam, January 22, 1795' 
Dear Sir: 

At the close of my last letter I mentioned the arrival of 
General Pichegru, with a considerable body of French troops ; 
at the same time came five Commissioners of the Conven- 
tion, deputed to the two armies of the North and of Sambre 
and Meuse.2 q-^g troops are quartered upon the inhabitants. 
The Commissioners occupy the house of Mr. Hope who has 
quitted the country. The General is quartered upon one 
of the wealthiest partizans of the former government, and 
every house in the city is ordered to receive two men upon 
application. 

The states of Holland have given orders to all their of- 

* See Memoirs, February 2, 1795. 

2 The letter to the Convention announcing the occupation of Amsterdam was 
signed by Representatives Bellegarde, Gillet, Lacoste, and Joubert. Portiez was 
the fifth. 



264 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

ficers and commanders to make no further resistance against 
the French armies. All the principal cities of the Province 
have admitted their troops upon capitulation. Hitherto 
no disorders have taken place, no massacres, no pillage, not 
even any personal insult to the conspicuous characters of 
the party heretofore dominant. The order and discipline 
of the troops are almost without an exception. In short, 
at this moment, it is scarcely possible for us who are spec- 
tators to conceive that what we have witnessed is in reality 
the complicated transaction of a foreign conquest and an 
Internal revolution. 

As the property belonging to the United States and their 
citizens in this country could not be subject to the terms of 
a capitulation, I thought it might be of some utility to see 
the Commissaries, and give them notice of the expectation 
that the neutral privileges of American property will at all 
events be respected. 

I accordingly paid them a visit this day, and was received 
in a manner perfectly satisfactory. The interview consisted 
principally of mutual compliments and expressions of civility, 
which it is unnecessary to repeat,^ but In the course of the 
conversation I told them, that the principles they had ob- 
served in the midst of victory, and the discipline and 
regularity, which so honorably distinguished the French 
armies now in this country, perhaps rendered useless any 
observations of mine upon the subject of property belonging 
to my country or my fellow citizens. That, however, as a 
different mode of warfare might have been pursued, the 
duties of my situation rendered it proper on my part to 
assure them of my full persuasion that, upon any contin- 
gency whatever, all the American citizens and property here 
would enjoy all the protection and security to which they 

^ See the Memoirs, January 22, 1795. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 265 

are entitled. The citizen who appeared to be at the head 
of the deputation, and who held the principal conversation 
with me answered, that American persons and property- 
will be under the same common safeguard with those be- 
longing to this nation, of the principles by which the conduct 
of the French people is dictated, and of the loyalty and regu- 
larity constantly observed by the French armies. That the 
French people did not come here as enemies of the Dutch 
people, nor had they any intention of oifering violence to 
their persons, their property, or their opinions. That if in 
the course of circumstances it should be necessary to make 
any exceptions, the Representatives of the French people 
would certainly make the strongest representations to their 
constituents in behalf of those whom they considered as 
their first friends, of a free people for whom they had the 
highest regard and attachment. 

Notwithstanding the protection extended to all private 
property, I presume that in consequence of the present 
circumstances the natives here will before any great lapse 
of time be subjected to burdens, from which the citizens of 
the United States will think the property belonging to them 
within the Republic entitled to an exemption. These bur- 
dens may appear in the form of a requisition or a contribu- 
tion, and perhaps in a form which we cannot anticipate. 
The Commissioners enquired if I knew what number of 
vessels and what other property of our citizens there is 
here. I answered them, I did not. With respect to the 
vessels I shall take measures to ascertain it, but for the 
rest, I am confident I shall not be informed until it becomes 
a subject of absolute necessity, in order to save the property 
from the effect of an established regulation. One American 
citizen and one English consignee of several others, are the 
only persons who have delivered to me any statements of 



266 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

property, for which they demanded the protection of our 
neutrality, and I find the other merchants, holders of 
American merchandise, averse to any communication which 
they think is not yet of absolute necessity. . . .^ 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 22 [Edmund Randolph] 

Amsterdam, January 24th, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

The municipality, or to speak more accurately the pro- 
visional Representatives of Amsterdam, are presided [over] by 
Mr. Schimmelpenninck,^ an eminent lawyer, with whom I had 
formed an acquaintance upon my first arrival in this city. 
He is a man of fair reputation for abilities and integrity, 

1 " I have lately been informed that General Eustace, whose adventure in this coun- 
try has been mentioned in several of my letters to you, did not go to America, but 
landed in France and returned to Paris. From a variety of circumstances I am led 
to suspect that he concerted with some of the Patriots here the measures which are 
now carrying into execution. I have little doubt but that he was disposed to make 
his arrest the occasion of a difference between the government to which I was 
accredited and me. In this disposition several of the Patriots, then under the 
harrow, but now in power, probably concurred. But neither the ostensible motives 
which they addressed to my passions and my docility rather than my understand- 
ing, nor the real purpose which they did not confide to me, appeared to me sufficient 
to justify measures on my part offensive to the government then existing, 
to whom I had so lately been sent, with assurances of friendship from that of my 
country. I therefore did not interfere at all in the affair after his liberation." 
To the Secretary of State [Randolph], January 22, 1795. Ms. 

2 Roger Jean Schimmelpenninck (1761-1825) was a deputy in the first National 
Assembly of the Batavian Republic. In 1798 he became minister and later am- 
bassador to Paris, and to London. Raised to the dignity of Grand Pensionary, he 
refused the appointment of life president of the corps legislatif under Louis, and 
when Holland was annexed to the French Empire he became a count and senator. 
On the return of the House of Orange he was a member of the first or upper house 
of the States General. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 267 

both parties appear to consider him as worthy of the station 
in which he is placed. 

I saw him accordingly this morning, and stated to him 
the grounds upon which I wished to obtain as early informa- 
tion as possible upon their future intentions. I observed 
to him that the rumor appeared to indicate a total revolu- 
tion of government, of Constitution, and of principles to 
commence from the present moment. That in the relation 
in which other nations stand towards this the knowledge 
of their further views becomes a subject of mutual impor- 
tance, and that I believed it to be customary to give notice 
to other friendly governments of such great changes as 
that which is taking place. 

He said he believed that the substance of all the institu- 
tions whereby the government has hitherto been adminis- 
tered would be provisionally retained ; that by proceeding 
otherwise they could expect nothing but anarchy. That 
they had written letters to all the cities of this province 
requesting their new regencies to appoint deputies to meet 
together at the Hague; that these deputies were already 
appointed, and he supposed would assemble tomorrow. 
They would assume all the functions hitherto performed by 
the States of Holland. They had also written circular 
letters to all the other provinces requesting them to pursue 
the same system of alteration. That as soon as this could 
be effected an assembly would be formed consisting of depu- 
ties from the provincial assemblies, which would be a sub- 
stitute for the former States General. That officers corre- 
spondent to the Pensionary of Holland and Grcfficr of the 
States General would be appointed, and in general that the 
mode of government would be preserved as heretofore. 
But that as the titles of "High and Mighty," of "Great and 



268 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

Noble," and the like, are not acceptable at the present day, 
these Assemblies would be known under more civic denomi- 
nations. Perhaps they would be called the "Assembly of 
the United Provinces," "The Assembly of the Province of 
Holland," or something similar, but the powers would still 
remain. He added, that he had yesterday seen and con- 
versed with the representatives of the French people upon 
this subject. That they entirely concurred in the opinion 
that this is the best system that can be pursued for temporary 
arrangement, and had promised to support them in it} 

He assured me that he would not forget the intimation 
relative to the notice to be given to other powers of the 
change of government here, and I requested him also to 
bear in mind that the credentials of ministers to and from 
the late States General may perhaps be so far affected as 
to require renewal or change. . . .^ 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 23 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, February 1st, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

• •••••• 

A vessel belonging to Mr. Swanwick,^ bound from Phila- 
delphia to Hamburg, was obliged some days since by stress 
of weather to put into the Texel, and an application to the 
representatives of the French people became necessary to 
obtain a permission for the captain to depart and proceed 
upon his voyage. I saw them accordingly this day, and 
they assure me that the necessary orders shall immediately 
be given, requiring only for their justification a demand in 
writing, which I have therefore made. 

1 In cipher. 2 January 31 Adams returned to The Hague. 

2 James Swanwick. It was the Active, William Blair, master. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 269 

They said they were happy to have the ministers of the 
powers in friendship with France as witnesses of the manner 
in which they conducted themselves in this country. I 
answered, that the testimony of every spectator must be 
honorable to them in the highest degree. And certainly 
their conduct has been not merely just but generous. They 
have not only promised and secured respect for the persons, 
property, and opinions of this people, but they have done 
the same towards the individuals even of the other nations 
at war with them. The ministers of Great Britain, Spain, 
Prussia and Sardinia left this place upon the approach of 
the French armies. The Spanish Minister had his horses 
taken from his carriage in the middle of the road, and was 
left thus in the coach on his way through the province of 
Guelderland. This depredation was committed by sol- 
diers of an allied army. 

But the Portuguese and Russian Ministers,^ and the 
Secretary of the Prussian Legation, ^ who remained here, 
have not been molested, but have been treated with polite- 
ness and attention. The Russian Minister, desiring to 
leave the country, was provided with a passport by the 
representatives of the people. It has been left at the option 
of the others to withdraw or to remain at their pleasure, and 
all the privileges of the diplomatic character are allowed 
them, and have not been violated by any of the troops. . . . 

The inveteracy against Great Britain appears to be unani- 
mous among them, and discovers itself upon every occasion. 
They talk of making a descent in England, as of a thing 
decided on, and most of them are ambitious of being em- 
ployed in the expedition. Their hopes of success are founded 
upon the expectation that they shall have only to contend 
with such warriors as they have found in the British troops 

1 Chevalier d'Araujo and Count de Kalitcheff. * Baron de Bielfeld. 



270 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

upon the continent. They declare universally that these 
troops are the worst of all the allied armies. To all the 
others they render full justice, most especially to the Aus- 
trians. . . . 



TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 

[Alexander Hamilton] 

The Hague, February 2d, 1795. 
Sir : 

On the 5th of December last I had the honor of writing 
you relative to the loan of 800,000 dollars, which has been 
proposed, and to the interest due and not paid upon the 
Antwerp loan. 

Since that time a total revolution has taken place in the 
political state of this country, but hitherto without operat- 
ing any change of circumstances favorable to the success 
of the intended loan. The shyness and timidity of wealth 
are not yet removed, and the numerous recent deficiencies 
of payments at once diminish the usual quantity of super- 
fluous money, and shake the confidence of individuals in all 
public engagements. 

The interest due upon the loans of the Emperor of Russia, 
of Poland, of Sweden and of the Dutch East India Company 
are all suspended. The province of Holland itself is more 
than insolvent, and the only securities which have not con- 
siderably depreciated are those of the United States. 

The advices from Lisbon upon which at all events the 
opening of the loan is to depend, have not been received. 
The bankers have repeatedly urged to me, and they have also 
written to you, Sir, their opinion of the expediency of an 
unconditional authority to take advantage of any favorable 
opportunity which may present itself. They say that from 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 271 

the nature of these transactions an occasion frequently 
occurs, which opens for a few days an avenue to the object 
which is totally barred before and afterwards. 

They have written to Hamburg to make inquiries whether 
the loan could be made there, in case it should continue to 
be impracticable in this country. They have received 
orders to transmit money for the payment of the interest 
due upon the Antwerp loan, orders which it has hitherto 
been impossible for them to execute. At the time when the 
interest became due the communication between Amster- 
dam and Antwerp was interrupted, and a prohibition of the 
government here prevented the remittance. The inter- 
course is now perfectly free, but Mr. de Wolf's compting 
house is shut up, and I have been told that he is himself 
detained as an hostage to secure the payment of a contri- 
bution imposed upon the city of Antwerp. 

Should he be speedily liberated and his compting house 
again opened, the holders of the Brabant obligations who 
are already impatient and uneasy will become clamorous 
unless they are immediately paid, and the delay, which I 
fear will then be inevitable, must have some temporary 
effect upon our credit. 

Whether this delay in the case supposed shall be una- 
voidable or not, must depend upon the capacity and dispo- 
sition of Mr. de Wolf to advance the money, for I confess 
I have little expectation that it will be remitted from hence. 

In a conversation which I had a few days since with Mr. 
William Willink and Mr. Hubbard they informed me, that 
when their payments of this month and of March shall be 
made, they shall be in advance with the Treasury Depart- 
ment. And the former of these gentlemen intimated that 
In case Mr. de Wolf should be liberated, the obligation of 
making advances upon his loan was incumbent upon him, 



272 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

as those upon their loans would be a sufficient burden upon 
them. 

This circumstance Is mentioned in order to warrant an 
observation which becomes indispensable. It is, that no ex- 
ertions beyond what a sense of duty prescribes are to be ex- 
pected from the Amsterdam gentlemen to secure the fulfill- 
ment of our stipulations in the contract made at Antwerp. 

It was also hinted that even in case there should be funds 
in possession at Amsterdam sufficient for the remittance, the 
possibility of an appropriation to other than the intended 
purposes of the money after its reception at Antwerp ought 
to be considered. 

The character of the house at Antwerp is altogether un- 
known to me. The suspicion discovered on this occasion 
may, perhaps without injustice, be attributed in part to 
motives more Immediately concerning the Interest of the 
gentlemen at Amsterdam than those of the United States. 
But in the revolutions of property and of principles which 
have become so frequent at this time, the inconvenience 
and danger of multiplying great pecuniary trusts cannot 
escape observation. 

These trusts are necessarily so great, and at the same time 
accompanied with so little real responsibility, that it is to 
be wished the United States may seldom have occasion In 
future of recurring to the resource of European loans. 

When payments of the principal are made a certain 
number of specific obligations are usually called in and 
cancelled. An instance has lately occurred in which the 
bankers who had negotiated a loan for the Danish govern- 
ment, instead of cancelling the obligations they had paid 
oflF, Issued them Into circulation again, and by this infidelity 
have loaded their employers with a double payment of the 
same debt. 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 273 

The Emperor's bankers towards the close of the last 
year, advertised in the public papers that the interest pay- 
able on the then ensuing new year's day would be paid as 
usual. By a subsequent advertisement they gave notice 
that the payments would be suspended for want of remit- 
tances. In the interval between the two publications they 
are said to have sold out all the obligations upon the loan 
held by themselves. 

The Swedish bankers at Antwerp have paid the interests 
due since the arrival of the French in that city in assignats, 
whether by order of their government or otherwise, I am 
unable to say. In either case the creditors are without 
remedy. In the latter the Swedish government is in the 
same situation. 

The bankers of the United States at Amsterdam are 
men of so much integrity that nothing is to be apprehended 
from their transactions disgraceful to themselves, or deroga- 
tory to the honor of their employers. But the confidence 
which is safe in their hands, cannot with equal security be 
entrusted to a variety of commercial houses in different 
parts of Europe, among foreigners not amenable to our 
jurisdictions, and subject to no other control than their 
individual fidelity. 

Upon this occasion It may be proper to suggest to consid- 
eration the propriety of some arrangements to ensure the 
payments of interest upon the Antwerp loan in future, 
independent of any gratuitous exertions at Amsterdam. 
Great confidence may be reposed in the dispositions of those 
gentlemen to maintain the credit of the United States in 
their own city, and they will not hesitate in case of necessity 
to anticipate from their own chest a payment of interest, 
rather than suffer a failure of punctuality in the performance 
of stipulations contracted by their agency. The credit of 

T 



274 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

the United States at Antwerp they do not conceive to be so 
much within their department, nor of primary importance. 
It has nothing to expect from them but neutrahty. I have 
the honor, etc. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 24 [Edmund Randolph] 

Dear Sir : "^"^ H^^"'^' February 5, 1795- 

I have just returned from a visit to the citizen Paulus,^ 
President of the Assembly of Provisional Representatives of 
the people of Holland. 

By the notification, a copy of which was inclosed with my 
last letter, it will be observed that the President of the 
Assembly takes the place of the former Councillor Pension- 
ary as to his relations with foreign Ministers. 

He spoke of the revolution which had just taken place 
and of the moderation and humanity, which had attended it. 
I observed that a revolution, conducted through with the 
same principles and conduct which had hitherto distinguished 
this, would exhibit an example worthy of admiration to all 
the nations of the earth. He replied that the national 
character, which was in general free from rashness and 
impetuosity, would still continue to direct a sober and 
regular conduct; that justice must have its claims, and the 
crimes which have for seven years oppressed and persecuted 
the Patriots of the country, will meet with punishment^ 
though not with revenge. 

He said that under the alteration which had taken place 
he hoped there would be none unfavorable to the friendship 
subsisting between the two nations. That we were sister 

1 Peter Paulus (1754-1796). See Adams, Memoirs, February 5, 1795. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 275 

Republics, and as the number of such sisters is very small, 
they had a particular value for our friendship. That I 
should find among the persons now engaged in public affairs 
many who had been the most active in promoting the 
acknowledgment of our independence, and although they 
were now proceeding upon a system altogether different 
from that which they pursued at that time, yet their senti- 
ments and dispositions towards us were still the same. 
That he had it expressly in charge from the Assembly to 
make me these assurances, and to add that they were resolved 
to perform ^ religiously the obligations of their treaties with 
the United States, and were disposed even to contract closer 
connections with them if they are so inclined. 

I told him that relative to circumstances which had so 
recently occurred, it was needless for me to observe that I 
could have no orders or instructions from the government 
of the United States to express their sentiments, but I could 
take upon myself to say, that the assurance of a continua- 
tion of the friendship and harmony subsisting between the 
two Republics would be received with great satisfaction, 
and would meet with the return of a similar disposition. 

As to the proposal of a closer connection I thought best not 
to appear to have noticed it. . . . 

The communication by the posts is opened anew with 
France, but has not yet become regular. All the other 
external posts are stopped, and the dearth of intelligence is 
consequently great. The operation of the late events here 
upon the policy of the belligerent powers is yet unknown, 
nor does it appear whether this Republic will yet be per- 
mitted to remain in peace. 

Should this be the case, undoubtedly the direct commerce 
of the United States to this country will become very advan- 

1 Words in italics were in cipher. 



276 THE WRITINGS OF I179S 

tageous, and will be more considerable than it has ever been 
hitherto. But in case of a new war it will depend much upon 
the policy pursued elsewhere. If our flag is respected, if 
the rights of our neutrality are not contested, and the prac- 
tise of plundering one nation to starve another is disdained 
as an unworthy mode of warfare, our merchants will have 
great encouragement to pursue the commerce which is now 
opening here. I am unwilling to make a contrary supposi- 
tion, but in case of necessity the proposal above related may 
deserve particular attention} . . . 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, February 12, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

Since the date of my last letter (December 21, 1794,) 
a revolution has taken place, the substance of which had 
been for some time expected, but the forms of which have 
been infinitely milder than had ever entered the imagination 
of any man. The French army of the North, after a brill- 
iant and successful campaign from March till December, 
had at length reached the banks of the Waal, and was for 
several weeks arrested in its progress by the natural barriers 
which at all times have constituted the most important 
defence of these provinces. Just at that period a succession 
of weather almost without example both in point of severity 
and of duration fastened all the waters of the country, and 
while it constructed a safe and easy passage for the French 
Republicans into the heart of Holland, it rendered the re- 
source of inundations impracticable to their enemies.^ 

^ In cipher. 

* "March 7, 1795. The Waters have been shut eleven weeks. Such a season 
is unparalleled in the memory of man. The severest winters in the course of the 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 277 

The existing government of this Union was not prepared 
for an event like this. The troops of the Republic capable 
of opposing the march of the enemy were already reduced 
by the events of the war from 50,000 to less than I5,cxx) men. 
Of their allies the Austrians gave them but little assistance, 
the Prussians none at all, and the British were considered 
as a burthen rather than a defence. 

The prevalence of British councils was however unim- 
paired in the cabinet. It had been proposed as early as 
October to send commissioners to Paris to negotiate a peace. 
A consent to receive them had already then been obtained, 
but the compliance of the British government with the 
measure was thought indispensable, and could not be 
obtained. 

It is presumed, however, that it was finally granted, as 
the measure was taken. Two Commissioners were dis- 
patched to Paris, but their authority was not commensurate 
with the exigency of affairs. The speech of the King of 
Great Britain at the opening of his Parliament seems to 
disapprove the step, but his Ambassador here still con- 
tinued his legislative functions, and two commissioners of 
the French Republic, who In consequence of his instructions 
had been kept In confinement since last May, were not 
liberated from prison, even after the departure of the deputies 
upon their pacific mission. 

The armistice which was the primary object of their 
negotiation could not be obtained. The Waal and the 
Rhine became passable upon the ice, and the passage of 
the former was accordingly effected by the French. On the 
8th of January, a council of war was held at Utrecht, con- 
sisting of the Austrian, Hanoverian, British and Dutch 

present century were in the years 1709 and 1740; but neither of those was so ex- 
cessive as that which is now breaking up." Ms. Diary. 



278 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

Generals, and the British Ambassador. The result of it 
was one more effort of resistance on the part of the allies. 
The actions of the 9th and loth were severe, but their 
issue only served to prove the insufficiency of the allied 
forces for the defence of this country. From that period 
they gave up the point, and have since then been employed 
in executing their retreat into Germany. The Province of 
Utrecht capitulated, and the French troops entered the city 
on the 17th. 

The next day the Stadtholder and his family left the 
Hague, and embarked in fishing boats at Schevening for 
England. He had previously demanded and obtained of the 
States General the dismission of his two sons as Generals 
In the service of the Republic. He then requested and 
received from the States General and from the States of 
Holland leave of absence for an indefinite time, and declared 
his intention to return and resume the functions of his 
offices whenever circumstances may permit, and testified 
his regret that he had not been able hitherto to serve the 
Republic more effectually. 

The plan of operations at Amsterdam, the execution of 
which had no doubt been previously concerted so as to avoid 
the appearance of a conquest, commenced on the day of the 
Stadtholder's departure from the Hague. 

A Dutch officer appeared with an order from the General 
of the Batavian corps in the French service to the Commander 
of the garrison then in that city, directing him and his garri- 
son to lay down their arms, and he exhibited to the Regency 
a commission constituting him Commandant of the place. 
The former garrison consisted altogether of troops who had 
already been made prisoners of war by the French upon the 
frontiers, and had stipulated not to serve against them during 
the war. The Regency, sensible that any further resistance 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 279 

to defend their authority could end only in their total de- 
struction, directed the then commander to surrender accord- 
ing to the summons, and received the Batavian from the 
French army as commandant of the city. 

About thirty French hussars were then introduced within 
the walls who took their station before the Stadthouse on the 
morning of the 19th, the three-colored flag was hoisted on 
that building, the tree of liberty was erected before it, and 
an immense crowd of people had collected together about it.^ 
A revolutionary committee, consisting of ten persons self- 
constituted, or at least whose origin is traced no further, 
appeared in front of the house ; one of their members read 
to the people there assembled a list of twenty-one names of 
persons, nominated by the revolutionary committee to 
constitute the Assembly of Provisional Representatives of 
the people of Amsterdam. He then demanded of the people, 
whether they approved the nomination, and was answered 
by a general shout of acquiescence. From that moment the 
Provisional Representatives deemed themselves vested with 
the whole power of the sovereign people of Amsterdam ; 
and they commenced their functions by sending word to 
the former Regency that the people had no further occasion 
for their services. 

Since that time they have distributed their accumulated 
powers into a variety of committees, for instance, of Public 
Safety, of General Vigilance, of Justice, of Finance, and of 
Trade and Navigation, besides constituting a mayor to super- 
intend the police of the city. 

^ "I have assisted (by invitation) at the grand fete of planting the new Uberty 
tree this day. This tree is a painted mast. I first thought the allusion was quite 
lost, inasmuch as it was a mast and not a real tree; but on reflection I think the 
allusion more complete, as I can almost prove it will not grow. On manque VespTit 
de la chose, in my humble opinion." Sylvanus Bourne to John Quincy Adams, 
Amsterdam, March 4, 1795. Ms. 



28o THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

In all the other cities of the province a similar revolution 
was effected in the course of a few days. In all, the ancient 
regencies either did in fact, or by a revolutionary fiction 
were supposed to have surrendered, their authority into 
the hands of the people. A list of new names was always 
ready to be presented for acceptance, in order to substitute 
a provisional authority correspondent to that which was 
annihilated, and where the approbation of the audience was 
not testified by acclamations their silence was taken for 
consent. 

While this operation was going through the admission of 
the French troops was also taking place. The internal 
revolution at Amsterdam you will observe was effected on 
the 19th of the month. The next day the General of the 
Army ^ and the Commissaries of the National Convention 
arrived, and were received as friends. The latter Imme- 
diately published a proclamation to the Batavian people. 
They declared that they came as friends and allies ; that 
they would respect the persons the property and the opinions 
of every individual ; that the independence of the Batavian 
people should not be violated ; that In the exercise of Its 
sovereignty that people alone should reform or modify the 
government, and that all excesses between the inhabitants 
should be prevented. 

In this manner was a total revolution of the sovereignty 
within and the introduction of a foreign army of seventy 
thousand men effected In the province, within the course of 
a week, without blood, without violence, and almost without 
tumult. The crisis of transition lasted but a day, and was 
attended only with noise. Since then the usual tranquility 
has been uninterrupted, everything about us has the same 
appearance that it had before, excepting that instead of 

' Pichegru. 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 281 

Orange flags, and cockades, and pictures, are substituted 
French soldiers, the three-colored riband, and the tree of 
liberty. 

But although the sovereign of the ancient constitution 
was no more, its deputations constituting the States of 
Holland and all their derivatives yet existed. The revolu- 
tion was hitherto confined to the municipal establishments, 
and it became necessary to extend it to the provincial 
government. The fundamental principle of the new system, 
was pursued as closely as could be without great incon- 
venience. The new municipal regencies in the several 
cities deputed from each of their own bodies three or four 
persons to meet together and administer the government of 
the Province. These deputies from ten or twelve cities 
(for the revolution was not then completed in all,) assembled 
at the Hague, on the 26th of January. They took posses- 
sion of the Hall where the States of Holland had always 
held their sessions, having first sent word to the Pensionary 
Van de Spiegel, and to all the former members of the 
equestrian order, that none of them would be admitted to 
their deliberations. They chose Peter Paulus of Rotterdam 
President for a fortnight, assumed the title of the Assembly 
of Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland^ 
and made an express acknowledgment of the sovereignty 
of the people, and the rights of men and citizens. They 
also declared that as an immediate consequence from these 
principles, the States of Holland and West Friesland con- 
sisting of an equestrian order and voting cities, as also all 
hereditary offices of Stadtholder, Captain and Admiral- 
General, were annulled, and they determined that the votes 
in their Assembly should be personal, and not by cities. 
They abolished also the Gecommitteerde Raad, and divided 
their functions between three Committees of their own 



282 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

body.^ They recalled all the members of the Province in 
the Colleges of the Generality, and appointed three of their 
members to take the seat of the Province in the States 
General,- and hold it as long as the present confederation 
shall continue. 

The example of this Province has been imitated in those 
of Utrecht, Guelders and Overyssel. Zeeland has capitu- 
lated, and as soon as the passage is opened for the French 
troops the new system will in all probability be adopted 
there. 

The troops of their friends are quartered upon the inhabit- 
ants of the cities. The discipline of the army is rigorous 
and well observed. The only complaint I have heard against 
it is its being too severe. The examples of capital punish- 
ment, which have been inflicted in more than one of the 
cities upon soldiers guilty of the most trifling thefts, are 
painful to a people among whom the penalty of death is 
very seldom executed, and reserved for the most enormous 
crimes. 

The Pensionary Van de Spiegel,^ the Grand Bailifl" of the 
Hague, Bentinck,^ the deputy Greffier of the States General, 
Lelyveldt, two brothers of the Greffler Fagel, and three 
members of the Regency of Leyden, are under arrest. All 
the members of the Regencies [are] dismissed and forbidden 
upon the severest penalties to go out of the Province. Some 
of them are held to be responsible for considerable deficien- 
cies in the public Treasuries, and others are supposed to be 
liable to criminal prosecutions. 

^ Public safety, war, and finance. 

2 The three were Hahn, secretary of the University of Leyden, Lestevenon, 
former minister to Brussells, and Loncq. 

* Laurent-Pierre Van de Spiegel (1737-1800). He was not released until 1798 
and then joined the Prince of Orange. 

• Comte Bentinck van Rhoon. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 283 

When the revolution shall have pervaded the seven 
Provinces it is expected that a Convention will be chosen 
to form a new Constitution. The sovereignty of the people, 
the equality of individuals, universal suffrage, a single 
Assembly and Committees, will form the basis of the 
future government. 

The communication with foreign countries is suspended, 
and that with France is not yet fully restored. We are 
therefore in a great measure deprived of external intelli- 
gence. 

The direct commerce with the United States will I hope 
be soon revived, and receive greater encouragements than 
it has ever yet had. Whatever the motives of the former 
government might be, it is certain that their regulations 
were very unfavorable to the navigation of our country. 
The friendly dispositions of those who have now succeeded 
are the more unequivocal, because they rest upon the foun- 
dation of their interest and even of their necessities. 

Among the members of the present administrations are 
many of your former friends. The President of the Pro- 
vincial Assembly, Mr. Paulus, particularly requested me to 
present you the testimony of his remembrance. Even 
the cautious aversion of Mr. William Willink to public 
employment has been obliged to yield to the exigency of the 
times. He is upon the Committee of Finance at Amsterdam, ' 
and reluctantly submitted to the established regulation 
which permits no man to decline the task of public service 
assigned to him. 

The apartments of the Princess of Orange are occupied 
by the Commissaries of the National Convention, who are 
styled the Representatives of the French people. They 
received the visit from the Minister of the United States 
at Amsterdam, where he happened to be at the time of their 



284 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

arrival. They assured him that they considered it alto- 
gether as a fraternal visit, and expressed themselves in 
terms of the utmost civility towards the United States, 
their President and Vice President. They appear to be 
well pleased with Mr. Monroe, but as to his predecessor,^ 
they spoke of him too, more than once. 

The General in Chief of the Northern Army, Pichegru, 
is lodged in the building called the old Court. In the 
course of three years he has risen from the rank of a sergeant 
of artillery to that in which he now appears, and in which 
he has performed a campaign unparalleled in the history of 
Europe. He avoids as much as possible every appearance 
of public display; his dispatches to the Convention are 
remarkable for the modest simplicity with which he relates 
the most important successes, and he appears to prefer 
conversing upon any subject rather than that connected 
with his own exploits. 

This disposition may be in some degree the result of a 
natural temper, but it may be partly attributed to a system 
taught by the fatal experience of so many preceding Generals. - 

It is impossible to foresee what effect the events herein 
related will produce upon the system of Europe. The King 
of Prussia has a minister at Paris. The Imperial Diet has 
determined upon a negotiation for peace. The people of 
England begin to be impatient for the same object. Spain 
is reduced to the last extremity and all Europe is exhausted 
and tired of the desolating war in which it has been so long 
involved. But the perseverance of the British Ministry, 
concurring with the Inveteracy of the French nation, will 
produce one campaign more, and It Is yet uncertain whether 

^ Gouverneur Morris. The meetings with the French Representatives are de- 
scribed at greater length in Adams, Memoirs, January 22 and February 2, 179$. 
* See Adams, Memoirs, February 3, 1795. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 285 

this Republic will be permitted to remain in future neutral, 
or whether it is only taken from one side of the scales to be 
thrown into the other. If she ceases to be a belligerent 
power, her present situation will open a very advantageous 
commerce to American enterprise. If she only changes 
sides in the war, an equally promising source of speculation 
will be opened, but will then depend partly upon the justice 
of another maritime power. The treaty signed on the 
19th of November last must before this have been the sub- 
ject of discussion and of decision in America. Whether 
ratified or not, many important points and sources of dif- 
ference will remain undecided. At present it Is more than ever 
the Interest of the Island to avoid a serious misunderstand- 
ing with the United States ; they on their part stand upon 
advantageous ground to resent any violation of their neutral 
rights. The present state of affairs will make their reclama- 
tions for entire justice compatible with prudence, and if it 
should be denied, the means of increasing their federative 
strength will perhaps be in their hands. 
I am, my Dear Sir, &c. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 25 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, February 15, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

In the Supplement to the last Leyden Gazette Is contained 

the address delivered by the Batavian Deputies to the 

National Convention. The mask Is no longer necessary. 

These are the persons mentioned In my letters Nos. 1 1 and 

18. They assume publicly the character of Deputies, and 

are admitted as such by the Convention. The authority 

however by virtue of which they act In this capacity does 



286 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

not appear; it is the spring unseen which gives all the 
visible motion of the Revolution in this country. It con- 
sists of a number, not very considerable, of individuals 
belonging to different parts of the country, who concerted 
secretly the mode of conducting the great political altera- 
tion which was foreseen ; who formed themselves into an 
association under the title of the Batavian Revolutionary 
Committee ; who appointed the Revolutionary Committees 
of the several cities, at present the apparent fountains of the 
public authorities ; and who employed these two deputies 
to negotiate with the Committee of Public Safety at Paris. 
At the time when these persons assumed the ofhce of 
delivering their country it was necessary for them to be as 
secret as possible in their operations. But the principles 
of the new system now establishing require publicity, and 
the banishment of all mystery or even secrecy from the 
councils of the Republic. The people are to know every- 
thing that is done in their name, how it is done, and by 
whom. Such is the theory. By the practice hitherto the 
deliberations of the new Assembly of Holland are not 
accessible to the public. They publish, however, their 
journals from day to day, and their laws as soon as they are 
made. It is remarkable, also, that of a power founded upon 
the supremacy of the people and the rights of man, the 
people know not at this day whence it originated, that an 
administration resting its authority upon the foundation 
of universal suffrage consists of persons substantially chosen 
by a small revolutionary committee, and In whose appoint- 
ment the people had not any agency other than that of 
acquiescence, and that while every appearance of secrecy 
is exploded and almost proscribed, the actors and even the 
plan upon which every measure hitherto adopted has been 
taken are altogether unknown. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 287 

There are two objects of primary importance which this 
secret Revolutionary Committee wished to secure. First, 
the internal revolution which has been effected, and secondly, 
some precise conditions upon which their admission of the 
armies and their future connection with the Republic of 
France should be founded. The first was certainly well 
contrived, and has been executed to admiration. But the 
negotiations with France were not equally successful, and 
this was perhaps owing to their having been commenced at 
a period rather too late. The Deputies did not arrive at 
Paris till the close of December, when the rivers had already 
been prepared by the hands of nature for the passage of 
the French armies. They treated secretly with the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety, and probably obtained from them 
a promise, as far as they could make it, that the sovereignty 
and independence of the Republic would be preserved ; 
but as for the rest, perhaps they were told they must con- 
tent themselves with a dependence upon the generosity of 
the French people. 

In a report to the Convention from their Executive 
Committees, made some time since, it was said that the 
Republic would make a peace with Holland under the 
guarantee of their own forces. Even at this moment the 
relative situation of the two nations remains a problem of 
solution not perfectly easy. 

On the 20th of January (ist Pluviose), the Representatives 
of the French people with the armies of the North and of 
Sambre and Meuse arrived at Amsterdam, and on the same 
day they published their proclamation to the Batavian 
people, copies of which they addressed formally to the 
foreign ministers residing here. In this proclamation is 
expressly said, "We appear In the midst of you as your 
friends and allies. We do not come to subdue you. The 



288 THE WRITINGS OF [179S 

French nation will respect your Independence. The Bata- 
vlan people In the exercise of their sovereignty can alone 
change or modify the form of their government." 

Yet on the 25th of January Carnot announced to the 
Convention that Amsterdam was taken. On the 27th the 
Representatives with the armies write to the Convention, 
that sundry places In the province of Holland are in the 
power of the (French) Republic. And In the beginning of 
February the Batavlan Deputies address the Convention 
expressly In the name of a conquered people, and appear 
throughout their discourse to consider the fate of their 
constituents as being still dependent upon the will of the 
Convention. 

They solllcit of that body to "restore the Inestimable 
treasure of national Independence to Holland liberated by 
them," affirming at the same time, "that this Is the only 
means of rendering this brilliant conquest really serviceable 
to France," etc. 

They pray the legislators to permit the free people of the 
Batavlan cities and country "the speedy election of their 
constituted authorities." 

The two last clauses of this address are particularly 
remarkable. 

It Is in this manner alone, it is alone by the means of magistrates 
elected by the people in the provincial assemblies under the eyes 
of the Representatives of the French people, that yoii, citizens, will 
avoid all the evils which disorganization would produce, and which 
would be more irreparable with us than elsewhere. On these 
terms, citizens, every sacrifice will appear light to the Batavlan 
people. They will even eagerly anticipate every assistance zvhich 
you have a right to claim from them. The enthusiasm of indepen- 
dence reconquered will make them equal to everything. 

Citizens, the right of conquest has acquired to you an active In- 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 289 

dustrious nation, worthy of some esteem for the labours and suffer- 
ings which in former times they sustained for Liberty. A wise 
■policy and your equity will do the rest. The Batavians deserve to 
be free. In breaking their chains, their gratitude forges softer 
ones for them which they will display with glory to the world. 

The answer made by the President of the Committee to 
this address has not been published here, nor have I seen it. 
The Commissioners of the States General, Brantzen and 
Repelear, wrote to the former Pensionary Van de Spiegel 
a ciphered letter. In which they requested him particularly 
to observe the contents of this answer. When their courier 
arrived here the Pensionary was already dismissed. The 
letter was therefore delivered to Mr. Lelyveld, the deputy 
Greffier of the States General. Lelyveld Instead of com- 
municating It to them, contrived to send It deciphered to the 
Pensionary. The circumstance was discovered. The new 
Assembly was In consequence called together at midnight, 
and sat till six In the morning. The States General were 
assembled at seven. Lelyveld was arrested. Possession 
was obtained of the ciphered letter and of the cipher, and 
a new deputy Greffier was appointed. 

The representatives of the French people demanded that 
when the seals should be taken from the papers of the 
Pensionary, whom they consider as one of the bitterest enemies 
of the French Republic, one of them may be present at the 
inspection. The same demand is extended to the papers 
of the other persons under arrest, and the resolutions have 
been taken accordingly. 

While the Batavlan deputies were asking of the Conven- 
tion permission for their countrymen to constitute under the 
eyes of the French representatives a provisional government, 
the thing had already been done In two or three of the 
provinces. It is now completed In Holland, Utrecht, 
u 



290 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

Guelders and Overyssel. In all the operation is uniform, 
commencing with the dismission of the regencies, and in- 
tended doubtless to conclude with the dissolution of the 
States General, or rather their regeneration by deputations 
from the new Provincial Assemblies. 

The preservation of this nation's independence and sov- 
ereignty, at least in point of form, seems to be so generally 
the inclination of the people and of their provisional repre- 
sentatives, that no proposition of a different system is yet 
hazarded in the public papers, though the press has been 
declared free. How far this national sentiment may be 
strengthened in the minds of the present leaders by the 
influence of private ambition, I shall not venture to inquire. 
But among their soberest citizens out of office there are 
some who think the happiness of the people would be best 
promoted by annexing the United Provinces to the French 
Republic. 

Ever since the foundation of the Union the rival powers 
of France and England have alternately possessed great 
influence over the councils of the Republic. But the trans- 
actions of 1787 amounted substantially to a conquest; 
from that period the government here have rather submitted 
than consented to the measures proposed to them by their 
allies. Under a different constitution and administration 
the subserviency of the nation must remain. Their naval 
power, the foundation of all their strength in the days of 
their glory, is no more. Their possessions in either India, 
destitute of their maritime protection and defence, can 
therefore in future be held only at the will of others. Their 
commerce and manufactures, which have already suffered 
so much from the successful conveniences of other nations, 
are declining from day to day. The energy of character, 
which once distinguished the people, and was at the same 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 291 

time the cause and effect of their heroic exertions and splen- 
did achievements, has been broken by the contagious example 
of submission to foreign armies, twice exhibited in the course 
of the seven last years, and the name of Independence will 
only keep together a party in the Republic which would 
soon be dissolved in the Department. 

Such are the reasons upon which the advocates of this 
policy support their opinion. It is not for me to pronounce 
upon their validity, nor is it yet possible to determine 
whether It will finally prevail. The present appearances 
indicate the contrary. I am, etc. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 26 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, February 19, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

The President of the Provisional Representatives of 
Holland sent me last evening a copy of the new law declar- 
ing the importation of flour free during the course of the 
present war. He had told me there would even be a pre- 
mium added to encourage the trade, but the law simply 
makes the article free. As it may be of some consequence 
in the United States I herewith inclose a translation of the 
publication. 

That respecting the circulation of assignats is contained 
in papers already sent you ; a general compulsive passing 
of them will be prevented if possible. 

As the majority of the Provinces was represented In the 
assembly of the States General upon the new system, they 
have already begun there to annihilate the institutions of 
the former Constitution relating to the generality. They 
began by abolishing the Stadtholdership of the union, and 



292 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

by a recognition of the rights of man. They have since 
abolished the council of state and the five admiralties.^ 
They have also sent a solemn deputation to the Representa- 
tives of the French people here, to propose a treaty of friend- 
ship and alliance between the two Republics. 

The answer delivered by the President of the National 
Convention to the address of the Batavian Deputies has at 
length been published here in the Dutch papers. It leaves 
the question as to the national independence of this people 
where it was. He calls them Batavian fellow-citizens, and 
exhorts them to build upon the foundations to be laid by the 
French nation. The Representatives of the French people 
here have repeatedly promised that the independence of 
this Republic shall be respected, and such is doubtless the 
system of the French executive administration ; but from 
a variety of circumstances it would seem that the legisla- 
tive sanction is yet wanting to the plan, and that it is a 
point of some delicacy to obtain it. 

The deputation from the States General consisted of a 
member from each of the seven Provinces and their new 
Greffier, who addressed the Representatives of the French 
people, and informed them, 

that their High Mightinesses, together with all the Batavian 
people, friends of Justice and of Liberty, ardently desire to conclude 
between the two nations as two equal and independent Republics 
a solid alliance by the means of a Treaty, founded upon equitable 
conditions and equally advantageous to the two states, in order 
to establish thereby between them the foundation so long desired. 
of the closest fraternity of which the annals of the world have hitherto 
made mention, a fraternity, of which it is easy to foresee and to 
calculate that the consequences cannot but be extremely advan- 

^The five Admiralty Boards were those of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Zeeland, 
North Holland, and Friesland. Only the first three were of any moment. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 293 

tageous to the two nations, while it cannot fail to advance and 
effectuate the general peace of Europe. 

If these expressions are compared with the plan of alli- 
aHce mentioned in my No. 11, perhaps the outlines of the 
future alliance as intended to be proposed from hence may- 
be inferred. The deputation was doubtless very courteously 
received, as was that from the Provincial Assembly of 
Holland, sent two days before for the same purpose ; but 
what answer was given them does not yet appear. 

Under the present circumstances it is from Paris that 
you will probably receive the most accurate and earliest 
information of the political system which is to govern this 
country. The determination of annexing the Austrian 
Netherlands and Belgium to the French Republic has been 
openly professed in a speech, which was received with the 
most distinguished marks of applause. "The Ocean and 
the Rhine," said the orator,^ "great rivers, the mountains 
and the sea must be our future boundaries ; beyond them we 
are the friends of every peopled This line necessarily 
comprehends several important places hitherto within 
the dominion of the United Provinces, and which may be 
expected to be ceded by the treaty, at the same time when 
the independence of the remainder will be formally acknowl- 
edged. 

The French troops are in possession of the province of 
Zeeland, and the Revolution has been effected at Middel- 
burg the capital.- The details of this event are contained 
in the papers inclosed. 

The system of moderation towards the members and 
partizans of the former governments, which has been 

1 Boissy d'Anglas. See Writings of James Monroe, II. 190. 
^ February 6, peaceable possession was taken. 



294 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

strongly recommended by the French Representatives from 
the moment of their arrival at Amsterdam, has hitherto 
been pursued with very few exceptions. At Utrecht, it is 
said the members of the ancient regency and several other 
persons have been put under arrest. The representatives 
of the people of Amsterdam have been instigated to imitate 
the example. They have not only resisted the impulse of 
private revenge, but have published an address to their 
fellow-citizens, detailing the motives of their conduct in 
this respect, and declaring the principles upon which their 
determination is founded to persist in their lenient treat- 
ment of the defeated party. There is indeed every reason 
to hope that this policy will not be abandoned so long as the 
Stadtholderian partizans remain quiet, and give no new 
occasion for severity. 

February 21st. The answer of the French representatives 
to the deputations from the States General and the Pro- 
vincial Assembly of Holland are now published. This 
country it seems is still to be at war. 

A further proof of this appears in the resolution taken 
by the States General to notify their acknowledgment of 
the rights of man, abolition of the Stadtholdership, etc., 
to all their Ministers in foreign countries, together with the 
assurance that the people wish no other than a continuance 
of peace, except with respect to the courts of Vienna, London 
and Berlin.^ 

It appears probable that as soon as the revolution is 
effected, and the provisional administration established 
through the seven Provinces, a National Convention will be 
proposed for the formation of a Constitution. The present 
prevailing sentiment leads to the expectation that the 
separate sovereignties will be dissolved, and that of the 

^ This last phrase was an error, which was corrected in the next despatch. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 295 

Batavian people alone remain. It is to be observed that 
the ideas upon the subject of government in general of that 
which may be most suitable to the character and circum- 
stances of this people arc far from being settled. They do 
not even seem prepared for the elementary principles of 
universal suflFrage. They have so long been habituated to 
exclusions upon political commercial and religious considera- 
tions, that it is questionable whether they will open the 
door of popular prerogatives so widely, as their general 
acknowledgment of the rights of man promises. In the 
elections for the provisional government the people have 
had no agency. The persons chosen are taken indiscrim- 
inately from all the Christian sects. But this political 
liberality did not extend to the appointment of any Jews, 
although they are very numerous in the Republic, and at 
Amsterdam constitute perhaps a fifth part of the popula- 
tion. 

It is said that a considerable part of the French army in 
these provinces is to march as soon as possible upon an 
expedition against Hanover. They appear indeed desirous 
to withdraw all their troops from a country where at pres- 
ent they have no occasion to act, and where they will be 
in danger of contracting habits unfriendly to their disci- 
pline. 

But if they quit this country, the aspect of internal 
affairs may perhaps be in some measure affected by their 
absence. They are certainly at present the strongest bond 
of union here, and as long as they remain the party opposed 
to the new order of things will be quiet and silent ; the case 
will not be the same after their departure. 

The fiscal of the Admiralty at Amsterdam and the Vice 
Admiral van Kinsbergen have been arrested. Several ships 
belonging to the East India Company, very richly laden, 



296 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

were in the ports of England at the time when the French 
arrived here. They are now detained by an embargo.^ 
The circumstance of their being in England is suspected to 
be not accidental. 

Having had occasion twice to write to the President of 
the Provisional Assembly of Holland, in obedience to the 
article of my instructions which occasioned my correspond- 
ence with Mr. Lelyveld, a copy of which I had the honor 
of sending you some time since, I wrote in our own language. 
Mr. Paulus noticed the circumstance, and I find it is men- 
tioned In the journals of the Assembly that the application 
I had made was in writing, "though in the English language. ^^ 
It has to them the appearance of singularity, as all their 
other diplomatic correspondence is carried on In French, 
and it subjects them to some Inconvenience because very 
few of them can read our language. I have never used It 
with any one of them without their mentioning it after- 
wards, but as I have not felt myself authorised to tell them 
it was in consequence of a positive instruction, I have never 
given them any reason for the practice. It has been one 
principal cause which has hitherto prevented me from 
writing on the subject of the consular question, as well as 
upon that of the heavier duties imposed upon our naviga- 
tion than upon that of the European nations.^ 

I have lately received a letter from General Eustace at 
Paris. He assures me that he delivered to Mr. Monroe 
the letter which I had intrusted to him for you, so that I 

^ Two commissioners, Pasteur and Vitriarius, were sent to England to obtain 
the release of these vessels and cargoes, but did not succeed. 

^ The authorities allowed Adams's American letters to pass, "though under seal," 
a favor extended to no other letters, not even those of the States General to their 
own ministers. "They had consented to accommodate me, because they were 
well assured the minister of their friends and allies would not intrigue against them." 
Adams, Memoirs ^ February 12, 1795. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 297 

presume you will receive it in due time. The General in 
his letter insinuates that the motives of his return to France 
originated in his arrest while he. was here. It is probable 
that he was employed by the Patriots of this country to 
concert measures between those at Paris and those in 
Holland, as well perhaps as to obtain favorable terms from 
their friendly conquerors. I am etc. 

TO SYLVANUS BOURNE 

Hague, February 22d, 1795. 
Dear Sir: 

I received Mr. Monroe's letter, mentioned to you by 
Mrs. Read, near a fortnight since. It is dated January 28th, 
but the day before that of Mr. Skipwith to you, but it does 
not contain a syllable upon the subject which he requests 
you to recommend, and indeed this affair appears to me so 
very mysterious, that I think it necessary at least to under- 
stand and be understood before I act. 

I would write to the lady herself, was I not restrained by 
considerations of prudence. I must therefore request you 
to answer Mr. Skipwith by the first mail, that I fully concur 
in the sentiments and dispositions expressed in his letter 
to you, and that I am not only willing but anxiously desirous 
to contribute as far as in my power to the same purpose, 
but I have no discretionary authority whatever over my 
public monies ; that If I had, It would be impossible for me 
to make any advance upon the single document he sent for 
me ; that as the demand upon me expressly purports to be 
a recurrence to our nation, It asks what as the representative 
of the nation I have no power to grant ; that, nevertheless, 
I will with pleasure take measures to have the sum demanded 
paid according to the request, if It is desired, but that in 



298 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

order to enable me even to ask repayment from the Ameri- 
can government, I must have some document to show that 
the charge is equitable; that at present I do not even know 
what the charge would be. That if the present state of 
affairs necessitates particular discretion, I will be content 
with an assurance from our Minister at Paris, from Mr. 
Skipwith, or from the lady herself, that I shall in future be 
provided with documents to warrant a solicitation for in- 
demnity on my part. That if nothing of this can be done, 
I will, if the lady will consent, have the money paid and 
consider it as a private debt repayable by her or by whoever 
receives it. 

I know not a human being upon earth entitled upon so 
many principles, and by such imperious obligations, to the 
exertions for relief of every American citizen, the inhabit- 
ants of Boston particularly, and of me individually, as 
the person to whom this demand may be supposed to allude ; 
and it is painful to me that the request comes under circum- 
stances which compel me to a moment's hesitation or delay. 
But compliance to the thing required of me is impossible, 
and I think I cannot execute another thing as a substitute, 
without knowing whether it will answer as such.^ . . . 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 27 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, February 25th, 1795. 
. . . March ^th. The province of Friesland is now 
represented in the States General regenerated. That 
Assembly have appointed two Ministers Plenipotentiary 

1 This letter relates to a request made in favor of Madame de Lafayette, but her 
name was not mentioned. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 299 

to the French Republic,^ one of them Is the same person who 
some time since addressed the Convention as a Batavlan 
Deputy. The object of their present commission is for- 
mally to demand again an alliance between the two Repub- 
lics as free and independent nations. 

Three of the Professors at the University of Leyden have 
been dismissed. One of them, Mr. Pestel, has been distin- 
guished by several works relating to the Constitution of this 
Republic. Even the temple of the Muses is no sanctuary 
now, and the Patriots upon this occasion imitate an example 
of similar exclusion heretofore given by their adversaries. 

The States General have published an address to the 
troops proposing to them a new engagement. By way of 
attaching them to the new system they promise that in 
future the soldiers shall not be subject to the discipline of 
blows, that they shall be free to marry without being 
obliged to obtain the permission of their captain, and that 
promotion in future shall be conferred only upon merit or 
experience, and not by favor. 

Some of the adherents to the former government to coun- 
teract the operation of these regulations say, that they are 
not sufficiently liberal and think that the choice of the officers 
should also be conferred upon the troops. 

The prospect of a general pacification, which has appeared 
opening during the course of the winter, becomes daily 
more distant and obscure. At present a campaign no less 
violent and bloody than the last appears probable. The 
Emperor, assisted by a loan of money made in England, 
and another loan at Vienna, together with a free gift from 
the States of Hungary, seems determined upon a last and 

^ Jaques Blauw, a former magistrate of the city of Gouda, and Caspar Meyer, 
a former consul-general of the United Provinces at Bordeaux, were named ministers 
plenipotentiary near the French Republic to negotiate a treaty of alliance. 



300 



THE WRITINGS OF [179s 



violent exertion to obtain honorable terms of peace from 
the French Republic. The King of Prussia negotiates for 
a general negotiation, and makes some scruple to sign a 
separate peace. He will perhaps continue the war through 
the ensuing season as he did through the last, and it is 
questionable whether the French will carry the war much 
further into his dominions. 

One would not suppose that the present is a moment for 
indulging the ambition of conquest in this country. Yet 
from the vicinity of Westphalia and the Duchy of Olden- 
burg the dominant party contains individuals who are of 
opinion, that the French Republicans will very soon under- 
take and perform this conquest, and then annex these 
territories to the Batavian Republic. Some of them sup- 
pose that the expedition said to be directed against Hanover 
is really destined against East Friesland. 

On the second of this month the States General took the 
resolution that the act of guaranty of the Stadtholdership 
passed in the year 1787 should be immediately burnt. They 
ordered their agent van Hees to commit the instrument to 
the flames in their presence. He preferred asking his dis- 
mission from the office he sustained, and his request was 
immediately granted. They appointed in his stead a per- 
son ^ who had been dismissed from the same station in 
consequence of the Revolution in 1787. . . .^ 

1 W. Quarks. 

2 "The war with Great Britain can no longer be doubted, and indeed it has not for 
a long time been a subject of question in my mind. The preparations for a cam- 
paign as fiercely contested as the last appear to be making on all sides, and yet the 
combatants begin to parley. All most devoutly sigh for peace, and the remainder 
of the war will perhaps only prove a fruitless waste of human life. 

" It appears to me that the value of our neutrality becomes doubly precious, and 
it has the singular advantage of being favoured by the interest of all the belligerent 
powers. As the friends of all, our commerce will be much more serviceable to each 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 301 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 28 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, March 17th, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

Our foreign communications except with France are still 
interrupted, so that I have neither the means of receiving or 
of conveying foreign intelligence. The Danish Minister 
here sends a courier who will pass through Hamburg, and by 
his kindness I have an opportunity to send my letters there, 
uncertain when they will go from thence. 

As to this country a profound tranquility is the principal 
circumstance that characterises its present internal state. 
The States General still retain their forms and their name, for 
the purpose of preserving without intermission the chain of 
their connection with foreign nations ; but the members who 
compose that assembly have undergone a total change. 

of them than our assistance could be as confederates. If engaged on either side, 
we could give but little help to our party, and little annoyance to our enemy. 

"I believe that the government of Great Britain has discovered that the policy 
of adding us to the number of their enemies would at the present juncture be un- 
wise. If the treaty signed on the 19th of November has been ratified, it may prove 
the foundation of the return to that good understanding which our interest and 
inclinations equally lead us to preserve with all the commercial nations of Europe." 
To Syhanus Bourne, March 12, 1795. Ms. 

"As the vessels from America now arrive with some frequency, I presume you 
will pursue the plan, which you mentioned your intention of commencing with the 
new year. I wish the law required that the registers and manifests should all pass 
through the consul's hands, for I see no other practicable means of collecting the 
tables of our commerce in detail, which our government require. I should think, 
however, that the present situation of aiTairs, which necessitates perpetual applica- 
tions to you, from the captains and merchants concerned in our commerce, offers 
a favorable opportunity to establish by degrees the custom of delivering the registers, 
which I think the law recommends, and which is really practiced in other ports, 
as in London for instance, where I understand it is universally complied with. 
Perhaps the good will of the broker might facilitate much the introduction of this 
salutary usage." To Syhanus Bourne, March 14, 1795. Ms. 



302 THE WRITINGS OF I179S 

Six of the provinces are now represented under the new 
arrangements, and the representation from Zeeland may be 
expected daily to complete the confederacy, the former 
deputation having some time since been recalled. 

This Assembly and the several Provincial Assemblies of 
the Republic are still employed in abolishing the institutions 
of the former Constitution and substituting other arrange- 
ments in their stead. The President of the Assembly of 
Holland, in a speech after the completion of his third presi- 
dence, mentions the general system upon which the Revolu- 
tion is conducted. The exterior forms (he says) of the 
Legislative part of the Constitution are used to operate a 
complete change in the Executive part which, when new or- 
ganized, will supply the means of effecting the same altera- 
tion in the Legislative. 

The administration of the military force by sea and by 
land under the former Constitution was cumbrous, like all 
the rest of that system. It has now been simplified and put 
under the direction of single committees, Mr. Paulus is 
president of the Marine Committee, and as his talents for 
this administration have heretofore been found essentially 
serviceable to one of the Boards of Admiralty, it is expected 
that his talents will be of infinite service, as the sphere of their 
employment will now be co-extensive with the Republic. 

The situation of this country's naval power has already 
been stated to you. The list of ships published by authority 
under the old government named forty-three men of war 
and thirty-five frigates as the number of the existing navy ; 
of these not more than fifteen of each were in commission, 
and of those in commission not more than a third part are 
now fit for being sent into action. The foundation for a 
respectable force however exists, and the importance of 
this department for securing permanency to the revolution 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 303 

is well known to those now having the direction of affairs, 
as appears very clearly by their placing the most prominent 
character of the Revolution at the head of it. 

There is reason to suppose that the exertions which will 
unquestionably be directed to this question will be productive 
of effect more than appears to be expected. The system of 
neglecting the maritime force and suffering it to perish by 
degrees was essentially connected with, and the natural 
effect of, a subordinate intimacy with the self-entitled rulers 
of the waves. To court their friendship, to deprecate their 
resentment, or to secure their protection, nothing could be 
more effectual than to lay aside the means of being formi- 
dable to them ; and, accordingly for the space of the last 
forty years, in peace and in war, whether leagued as allies, 
opposed as enemies, or indifferent as neutrals, the deadly 
torpor of a political opiate has incessantly been infusing 
into every vein and artery of this naval constitution, while 
the siren song of family affections has always been added to 
charm its sensations as they weakened, and gently soothe 
into the slumber of death. 

But now an opposite system will undoubtedly direct the 
policy of this Republic, and the principal exertions of the 
nation will be applied to their maritime affairs. But nothing 
can be done without money, and the public treasuries are 
empty. A loan of eight millions Is ordered to be furnished 
by the city of Amsterdam within the space of a month, at an 
interest of three and a half per cent, and will undoubtedly 
be furnished. Similar and proportionable contributions 
will, perhaps, be levied upon the other cities of the province. 
The burden may possibly be thought severe, but it will not 
be Intolerable. 

In the meantime the fate of the country still remains 
undecided. The French armies are still here as conquerors, 



304 THE WRITINGS OF [179S 

and the substance of independence Is not so scrupulously 
observed as its forms. The property of the Stadtholder 
was considered for some time as being comprehended un- 
der the protection promised by the proclamation of the 
French Representatives, but it is now declared to have 
become the spoil of the conquerors. This arrangement 
however carries with it nothing very disagreeable to the pres- 
ent administration here. They are not much disposed to 
regard the losses of a family which they so cordially detest, 
and perhaps they think themselves well rid of an administra- 
tion to property encumbered with debts beyond its value. 
This will prove no inconvenience to the French, who take 
the estate but leave the debts to be paid by the former owner. 

By the forms of the present system, whatever the French 
government choose to have done is notified by the French 
Representatives here to the Assembly of the States General. 
They take their resolutions accordingly, and the execution 
is by the common authority of the country. For military 
affairs the generals possess the supremacy of notifying. 

In the substance the people are subjected to the usual 
consequences of conquest. More than a hundred thousand 
soldiers are quartered among the people. It is a grievous 
affliction, but is borne with as much composure as may be 
expected. An heavy requisition of clothing and provisions 
has been levied. It was painful, but the articles were 
supplied. The greatest difficulty has been respecting the 
introduction and circulation of assignats. It was a favorite 
object here to obtain exemption from the necessity of making 
them forcibly current; people of all descriptions dreaded 
them, and it was for some time hoped that there would be 
an arrangement on the subject to give general satisfaction. 

But the troops must be constantly supplied with sundry 
articles, and they had nothing but paper to pay for their 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 305 

purchases. At length a law was enacted by the provisional 
assembly of Holland which directed the acceptance of the 
paper in payment for necessary articles furnished to the 
troops. The intention was to circumscribe the compulsive 
circulation within those limits, and the law declared that the 
holders of the paper under this regulation might deliver it 
over to the municipalities of the towns. The assignats 
are valued at nine stuivers to the livre, which is very nearly 
equivalent to the nominal value. But the latter part of the 
law is not hitherto executed, and the holders, of course, 
are not perfectly satisfied. 

I am this day informed that the new deputies from Zeeland 
have taken their seats in the States General so that the 
representation under the new arrangement is complete 
from all the provinces. . . . 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 29 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, March 9 [19], 1795. 

The course of affairs during the operation of so great a 
change as that which is taking place in this Republic natu- 
rally produces various extraordinary measures and regula- 
tions, some of which affect Immediately more or less the inter- 
ests of other nations. The dispositions of the new Adminis- 
tration are certainly very friendly towards the United States. 
They are not studious to contrive laws whose operation, 
though general in words, may point in reality against our 
commerce alone. They are not inclined to be employed as 
the instruments of others' hate, to Injure us from subservi- 
ency, and to throw every possible Impediment In our way 
from submission to others rather than from malevolence 

X 



300 



THE WRITINGS OF [179s 



against us. They are not the passive agents of a deliberate 
system to cramp the growth of the United States, and to 
delay as long as possible the inevitable day of their national 
power. They receive no impulse from external resentment 
or fear relative to the prosperity or the principles of the 
transatlantic Republic. But the necessities of their situa- 
tion at the present moment have, in some instances, occa- 
sioned an interruption to the enjoyment of the neutral 
and stipulated rights of our fellow-citizens. 

A law was published some time since relative to the circu- 
lation of the French asslgnats, and containing also a prohibi- 
tion under severe penalties against the exportation of specie 
from this province. It forbids all persons going out of its 
bounds from carrying any more with them than a sufficiency 
(to be ascertained by the municipalities of the place from 
whence they depart,) for the expenses of their intended 
journies. There are at this time several citizens of the 
United States at Amsterdam who arrived lately, bringing 
with them sums of money with the intention of proceeding 
into Germany upon pursuit of their commercial affairs, and 
they have not been able to obtain permission from the mu- 
nicipality to take with them the money they brought here, 
upon the supposition that it is forbidden by the law before 
mentioned. Upon meeting with the difficulty from the 
municipality, Mr. Bourne wrote me requesting me to make 
application on the subject to the government here. 

I saw the President of the Provisional Assembly of 
Holland and represented to him the circumstances, assuring 
him I was persuaded an erroneous construction had been 
glv^en to the clause In the law, and that it was not intended 
to operate In a manner Inconsistent with the stipulations 
contained In the treaty. 

He said there was certainly no such Intention. That there 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3°? 

was meant to be left a discretionary power with the munici- 
palities to authorize strangers travelling through the country 
to carry with them whatever money they had brought into 
it. That if, however, the scruples of the municipality at 
Amsterdam should continue, it would still perhaps not be 
necessary for me to apply to the States General on the 
occasion, as the law would in all probability very soon be 
repealed. It was only a temporary regulation which had 
already answered as far as could be expected the purposes 
for which it was made, and was therefore no longer necessary. 

Two American vessels arrived in the course of the winter at 
the Texel have hitherto been prevented by the ice from pro- 
ceeding to Amsterdam.^ At present the French comman- 
dants in the ports where they are, will not permit them to 
finish their voyage without passports from the representatives 
of the French people. Upon my mentioning this fact the 
President said it must be owing to some mistake. He said 
he would speak to the French representative, Alquier, the 
only one still remaining here, and requested me to do the 
same, if I thought proper, in order to remove this incon- 
venience at present and anything of the same kind in future.^ 

I requested of the Representative Alquier, first verbally, 
and afterwards in writing, an order to the commandants at 
the places where the two vessels are detained to permit them 
to depart and complete their voyage to Amsterdam, and 
also proposed to him to give a general order to all the French 
commandants in the ports of the Republic, by virtue of 
which the captains of vessels belonging to citizens of the 
United States may in future, upon presenting to the com- 
mandants their sea letters or passports prescribed in the 
treaty of commerce subsisting between the States General 

j 1 The Concordia, Captain Bysand, and the Complanter, Captain Cahoon. 

2 Adams, Memoirs, March 9, 1795. 



3o8 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

and the United States, enjoy the liberty of commerce and 
the navigation stipulated in that treaty. 

He said that as to the two vessels in particular, there 
could not be the smallest objection to the expedition of the 
passports, but that under the circumstances of the present 
moment an indispensable necessity dictated measures to 
prevent the departure of any vessels bound to foreign ports. 
" We are yet in this country''^ (said he) ''as conquerors, or at 
least we occupy it, and we are obliged to employ some ex- 
traordinary means of precaution which we have concerted 
with the government here." 

I told him that the United States being sincere and 
cordial friends to both the French and Dutch nations, I 
could assure him my fellow citizens would not be inclined to 
raise reclamations against the measures of prudence or pre- 
caution, which are commanded by the necessities of an 
extraordinary occasion, even if their operation should involve 
some temporary inconvenience to us. But at the same time 
I hoped and believed our friends would not extend these in- 
conveniences any further than absolute necessity should 
require, and that every possible facility would be afforded 
to a commerce so beneficial to the interests of all parties. 

He said that in the course of a short time, perhaps a few 
days, an entire liberty of navigation would be restored, and in 
the mean time, if any captains of American vessels were 
desirous of sailing and would inform me of their wishes, it 
might facilitate their departure. That no unnecessary 
restrictions would be imposed, and every possible facility 
be given. 

The principle upon which the French have proceeded 
since their conquest of these provinces is, that they came as 
the friends of the people and the enemies of the govern- 
ment. One of its deductions is, that although they leave 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 309 

private property untouched that of the government be- 
comes the property of the conquerors, as well as that 
of the other governments with whom they are at war 
which they find here. And as part of this property consists 
in vessels laying in the several ports of the Republic, they 
think it necessary to allow none to depart without first 
ascertaining whether it is not, upon the system which they 
have adopted, an object of seizure. 

March 24. A general arrangement is at length agreed to 
by the Representative Alquier, in consequence of which 
our navigation and commerce in this country will not, I 
presume, meet with any further obstructions. I inclose 
herewith a copy of my correspondence with him on this 
subject, and of his order to the commandants. 

Although this correspondence does not come within the 
article of my instructions which prescribes to me the exclusive 
use of our own language, I am not without my apprehensions 
that, in using any other language upon any occasion when I 
write in my official capacity, I may be really departing in 
some measure from the system upon which that direction 
was given me. Your instructions in this instance command 
me not to lose a particular right, and so far I shall certainly 
follow them. If it is the intention of the President that I 
shall never vary from the exercise of the right, I shall scrupu- 
lously observe the order from the moment it shall be notified 
to me. 

If it be an established maxim of the Government of the 
United States that all the correspondence of their servants 
shall invariably be carried on in their own language, it shall 
never be varied from by me after I shall once be informed 
of the fact. As this inference may be drawn, though it is 
not indispensable from that clause of my instructions, I have 
thought myself authorized on these occasions to use the 



3IO THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

French, as an accommodation to the persons to whom I 
wrote, and have therefore always written to the French rep- 
resentatives here in that language. 

I have had occasion repeatedly to make application to 
them upon occurrences so inconsiderable as not to deserve a 
particular notification of them to you, and in which nothing 
more than some particular convenience of an individual 
fellow-citizen was to be obtained. They have always re- 
quired a demand in writing, but upon every occasion I have 
found them ready to give every facility that has been 
required of them in behalf of citizens of the United States, 
and their assurances of good will and fraternity, which 
never fail of being repeated with the utmost apparent cordi- 
ality, have hitherto been as invariably attended by the sub- 
stantial proofs of their sincerity in the compliance with 
everything demanded of them. 

I have the honor, &c.^ 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

T^ c The Hague, April i, 1791;. 

Dear Sir : •> i- •> lyj 

Since the date of my last letter, February 12, nothing 
very material has taken place in this country. The cus- 
tomary tranquility has been uninterrupted, and the Patriots 
of the present day have been proceeding with moderation 
towards their first object, the annihilation of the govern- 
ment that has hitherto existed. ^ 

' With the country in the singular position of being at the same time conquered 
and uidependent, the regulations proved at times confusing. The American minis- 
ter was obliged to treat with two authorities, the government of the country and the 
Representative of France, and in treating with the latter his functions appeared to 
deal with questions properly under the American minister to France, James Monroe. 
No dispute over authority arose between the two ministers. 

* "With respect to internal arrangements, the Revolution is to be considered as 
distinct from the Conquest. The principles may be conceived from the following 



llUiUUltA 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 311 

I say the Patriots of the present day, because the party is 
not exactly the same, as it was in the time of your residence 
here. The operators of the present revolution are to be 
considered rather as a detachment from the old Patriots, 
whose principles they have abandoned altogether and substi- 
tuted others in their stead. 

This circumstance gives the clue to account for the total 
silence and obscurity in which such men as Mr. Van Berckel, 
Van der Capellen, Gyzelaer, and many others, formerly 
considered as the principal characters of the patriotic party 
and the greatest sufferers by the Stadtholder's victory in 
1787, have continued and still continue amid the great 
political changes now taking place in their country. One 

statement. The French nation, having conquered the Stadtholderian government, 
establish the Liberty of the Batavian people, who receive this blessing from their 
hands as a present. The first use they make of it is to abolish every part of the con- 
quered government, reserving only the States General for the present, in order to 
preserve without interruption their relations with foreign nations. The municipal 
governments are all destroyed, provisional municipalities, elected by the people, 
are substituted in their stead. Provincial assemblies are constituted, consisting 
of deputies from the new municipalities. The provincial assemblies abolish the 
former provincial states, and all their appendages, as also the Stadtholdership of 
each province. The States General, who are continued merely in point of form, 
consist of deputations from the provincial assemblies. So that the change of men 
is universal; of forms considerable, but not total; of substance very small indeed." 
To William Short, March 31, 1795. Ms. 

" It is well known to you that secrecy is considered as an essential ingredient 
of the commercial policy of this country. It forms the character of their public 
institutions, and it is taught as an elementary principle of education. No details 
of commerce are published by authority. The public offices are not gratuitously 
or legally accessible. The only source of information on this head is, the knowledge 
of individuals. There are great numbers of merchants who are in possession of the 
information, but whose habits and principles are equally powerful to persuade 
them from making any communications. This system of concealment so univer- 
sally prevails, that the subject upon which men of genius, science and general in- 
formation in this country, other than professional merchants, are found to be the 
least informed, is that of the national commerce." To the Secretary of State, 
April 2, 1795. Ms. 



312 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

article of creed at the present day is, that all the dissensions 
in the Republic heretofore have merely been struggles for 
power and office between two cabals, a wicked faction 
with Orange and a wicked faction without ; that both have 
been equally regardless of the rights of man and the happiness 
of the people ; that now the principles are changed, and the 
sacred love of universal liberty is the only motive which 
inspires the actors upon the scene. 

The ancient Constitution therefore must be destroyed, or 
rather it vanishes before the light of a single luminous prin- 
ciple. It was founded on the rights of princes, of nobles, of 
corporations, of the church, in short upon a motley jumble of 
every possible right, except the only rights upon which any 
legitimate government can rest, the rights of man. 

Such Is the present logic of the party. It has been 
adopted by the great number of the ancient Patriots, because 
it is conformable to the fashionable doctrines of their libera- 
tors, and because it Is supposed there is a seed of rapid 
propagation contained In it which will strengthen the party 
with numerous additions from the populace, who have 
generally been partizans of the House of Orange. 

But the reasoning is not conclusive to the minds of all 
the old Patriots. They say that the theory of their govern- 
ment was indeed absurd. But that In affairs of government, 
as well as others, the pride of human reason must often 
submit to the lessons of experience. That under this govern- 
ment, cumbrous and Inaccurate as It was, the people have 
enjoyed two hundred years of prosperity. That it secures 
to the possession of every Individual a greater share of 
personal liberty, a greater degree of security to property, and 
a more liberal range of opinions, than has commonly been 
found In other governments hitherto. In short they adhere 
still to the ancient Constitution, and reluct at a total change 



UiMlUlitUllJlllftM 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 313 

upon the usual and natural reasons which operate against 
violent political innovations. 

Thus you will observe, Sir, that a schism among the 
Patriots has taken place, similar to that which in England 
has been noticed by the distinction between the new and the 
old Whigs. But as far as private opinions, compressed and 
restrained by an armed force, can be traced, the Patriots have 
not gained real strength in point of numbers by this change 
of principles. 

Under the prevalence of the new theory all the former 
functionaries have been removed. The ancient forms have 
been abandoned or retained, according to the dispositions 
of the several new institutions. Instead of the Provincial 
States provisional assemblies to represent the people have 
been formed in all the provinces, and all pompous titles 
are laid aside, except those belonging to the States General, 
which are retained only for the purpose of preserving the 
relations of the country uninterrupted with foreign nations. 

A committee of the States General is appointed already to 
draw up and present a plan for the formation of a National 
Convention, to represent and to make a constitution for the 
whole people. 

The jealousies of towns and of provinces will impede the 
formation of such a government still more than the ani- 
mosities of party. Facilis descensus Averno. The Patriots 
have hitherto done nothing but cut away and pull down. 
If they really intend to erect a Republic one and indivisible, 
founded upon universal suffrage, a single assembly and com- 
mittees, which appears to be their plan, they will not succeed. 

I mentioned in my last letter that on the arrival of the 
French Representatives at Amsterdam, they published a 
proclamation declaring the liberty and sovereignty of the 
Batavian people, and at the same time expressing the inten- 



314 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

tion of the friendly Invaders to repress all excesses betzveen 
the inhabitants. They have carried this intention into full 
effect, and indeed the precaution was necessary. Their 
interference has more than once been requisite, to preserve 
individuals of the defeated party from severe treatment, to 
say the least. 

The recollection of the past and anticipation of the future 
equally contribute to exasperate the present possessors of 
power against their adversaries. It is remembered that 
the victory in 1787 was not enjoyed with moderation. It 
is foreseen that violent struggles will be made in future to 
recover what has recently been lost. The possibility of a 
return to the former dominion is affectedly denied, and hence 
its probability is forcibly felt. The conquered partizans 
emboldened by the lenient treatment they experience 
do not disguise their hopes, and as their only present con- 
solation, love to Intimidate by threats. Revenge and terror 
rankle in the hearts of those who have suffered from op- 
pression, and are now in possession of power. They are 
restrained from action only by the presence of their armed 
liberators, and the tranquility of the country has no security 
so eflfectual as the protection of the French armies. 

The States General have appointed two ministers plenipo- 
tentiary, to solicit and negotiate an alliance with the French 
Republic.^ They have been some time at Paris, but have 
not yet been received In their characters by the National 
Convention. 

A war with Great Britain is supposed to be Inevitable. 
The naval force of this Republic was found reduced beyond 
all imagination. The five admiralties have been abolished 
in common with all the other institutions of the ancient 
constitution. 

• See p. 259 supra. 



nnuu 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 31S 

The administration of maritime affairs is intrusted to a 
Marine Committee, and upon the new organization of the 
navy only six ships of the Une have been put in Commission, 

The finances were found in a state of ruin, rather than of 
disorder. The want of money was perhaps purposely 
prepared by the former government, by way of precaution. 
To provide for present necessities, a loan of eight millions 
has been imposed upon the city of Amsterdam, and similar 
resources may be sought from the other parts of the Re- 
public. 1 1 

The military preparations, however, proceed with languor, 
and meet with numerous difficulties, and the necessity of 
peace is forcibly felt here and in every part of Europe. 

The neutral navigation and commerce is freed from its 
former shackles and invited by encouragements. The 
States General have removed all prohibitions. In this 
Province flour and rye meal will be admitted free from 
duties during the course of the present year. The scarcity 
of grain and flour is great throughout Europe. In France 
it Is extreme. 

Paris has again been In a state of agitation. The Con- 
vention seems to lose its popularity. They have very lately 
passed a law to provide against the case of their own dissolu- 
tion by violence. It enjoins on the contingency of such an 
event, that the members who may escape from the hands of 
the assassins, together with the complementary members from 
the departments, shall assemble at Chalons sur Marne, and 
collect from the several armies a force to protect their 
deliberations. By the last accounts from Paris the city was 
more quiet than It had been a few days before. 

The rumors of peace between France and Prussia are 
frequent, but not yet authenticated. The event is con- 
sidered, however, as probable. It appears certain at least 



3i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

that the Prussian army has been withdrawn from the banks 
of the Rhine, and that the French troops have retired from 
the Prussian dominions bordering on this country.^ 
I am &c. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 32 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, April 7th, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

The Provincial Assembly of Holland have published a law 
requiring the inhabitants to furnish all their plate to be 
coined for public use. 

The plenipotentiaries in France have not yet been ad- 
mitted by the Convention. It is supposed they meet with 
difficulties which prevent the conclusion of the proposed 
alliance. The Patriots say that it is only a disagreement 
as to certain articles to be Inserted In the treaty. The 
other party pretend that the alliance has been peremptorily 
refused. 

A few days since a report was circulated at the same time 

' "The manner in which all the present authorities in this country were formed 
opens an inevitable source of discussion and dissension as to the limits of their 
several functions. All the forms and many of the principles of the ancient constitu- 
tion were abandoned. A semblance of approximation towards popular forms was 
substituted, but no permanent principles have hitherto been established." As 
an example he cites an oath of fidelity prescribed by the Provincial Assembly, to be 
taken by the members of the several municipalities, and also by all their executive 
agents. Amsterdam and Leyden objected, and the latter protested on the ground 
that "the Government is at present merely provisional, the child of the moment, 
and was never intended to be established as the constitutional government of the 
country; that it is very unequal in its principle, as it gives to the most incon- 
siderable village in the province a number of suffrages equal to that of the rep- 
resentation from the capital." The answer to this protest was the arrest of 
Schimmelpenninck and five other members of the municipality. To the Secretary 
of State, March 27, 1795. Ms. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 317 

throughout the province, that peace was concluded between 
France and Prussia, that by one of its articles the French had 
stipulated that their troops should all be withdrawn from 
this country, that in consequence of this agreement they had 
already begun to quit the frontier, and that as they retired 
they were immediately followed by the Prussians, who would 
very soon be at the gates of Amsterdam. It was propagated 
with so much industry and believed with so much credulity, 
that in all the large cities the partizans of the former govern- 
ment began to lay aside the three-colored cockade ; the 
songs peculiar to the party were publicly sung, and the symp- 
toms of seditious practices were so great that it became 
necessary to keep nightly patroles in the streets, and to make 
examples among the populace of those who had been the 
most conspicuous in Instigating the disorders. There can be 
no doubt that this popular fermentation was purposely 
raised by way of experiment, but by whom does not appear, 
nor indeed is it easy to discover from which of the parties it 
was provoked. 

It serves to show the degree of stability usually attributed 
to the present government, when a mere report, destitute 
of probability no less than of foundation, could produce 
riotous appearances throughout the province. A judg- 
ment may be formed what would be the consequence of the 
French army's withdrawing in reality. 

The destiny of this country may be represented in a very 
few words, submission to a foreign military or civil war. A 
foreign power may govern very peaceably in the name of 
either party, but neither has sufficient strength to rule in 
quiet without external assistance. 

The party now in employ, though probably the most 
numerous of the two, needs this assistance still more than the 
other because, having no center of union, no constant attrac- 



3i8 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

tlve force drawing them together, they are discordant among 
themselves. They can assimilate only for purposes of 
hostility against the other party, their common enemy. But 
the moment they become victorious all the jealousies of 
provinces, of towns, of individuals and families, assume their 
full force, impede every measure proposed, and render their 
government languid, lifeless and, in the eyes of the people, 
contemptible. 

The truth of this observation has been proved by the 
perpetual tenor of this nation's history since its existence as a 
republic. Every occurrence of the present times tends to 
the same issue. In my letter written before the catastrophe 
of the late government mention was made of the general 
principles upon which the Patriots then proposed to erect 
their Constitution on the ruins of the Union of Utrecht. 
At the first moment of the revolution in the transports of 
joy common to all the party, there were some appearances 
which indicated an united intention to dissolve all the par- 
ticular corporate privileges and distinctions into the general 
mass by a new Constitution founded upon universal liberty 
and equality. Hence the acknowledgements of the rights 
of man and citizens proclaimed by all the Assemblies. 
Hence the original resolutions of the Provincial Assembly 
that the suffrages of that body should in future be counted 
by persons and not by cities ; hence the forms of popular 
election observed in constituting the present authorities. 

This unanimity prevailed only during the moment of 
mutual gratulation. The same Assembly which had estab- 
lished the maxim of personal suffrage contrary to the 
practice of the former States of the Province, which had 
admitted representatives from all the villages unrepresented 
in the States, which had declared the sovereignty to be the 
right of the whole people and equality to be that of all 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 319 

individuals, within a month afterwards decided that Amster- 
dam might send what number of representatives its munici- 
paHty thought proper, but that only four of them could 
be allowed to vote. The same number of votes is allowed to 
each of the other cities, so that the comparative representa- 
tion of Amsterdam is reduced even lower than it was under 
the former government. 

The municipality of Amsterdam was dissatisfied with this 
decision, but submitted without remonstrating upon the 
presumption that the provisional Assembly would soon be 
dissolved, and that under the new arrangement the capital 
would be entitled to a representation proportionable to its 
population. But soon after the provisional Assembly pre- 
scribed an oath of fidelity to themselves, and required it 
should be taken by all the members of the subordinate 
authorities. The municipality of Amsterdam refuse to take 
the oath and an open breach ensues between them and 
the provisional Assembly. This circumstance has already 
been related. The arrested members have since been re- 
leased, a suspension rather than accommodation of the dif- 
ference has been mutually consented to. Some concessions 
have been made on both sides, but the oath has not been 
taken, and the parties are not satisfied with each other. The 
root of bitterness is planted and will shoot out in every 
direction. 

The same spirit of jealousy has already manifested itself 
between the provinces. The total deficiency in the finances, 
general and particular, has been represented, and is equally 
felt by all the members of the Union, but they do not agree 
upon the measures to be taken for filling the public coffers. 
Six of the provinces in the States General have consented to 
the proposal of opening a loan of twelve millions of guilders 
in the name of the Union. But the province of Holland has 



320 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

declared itself very explicitly against this proposition be- 
cause the burden of the debt would fall upon that province 
only, and the Provisional Assembly have substituted to 
answer the same purpose the law demanding all the gold 
and silver of the inhabitants with certain exceptions. The 
express condition is, however, annexed to the execution of 
this law that it shall be adopted by the other provinces, which 
will probably not be complied with. The treasuries will still 
remain empty and other resources will be suggested, discussed, 
and rejected. 

This call for gold and silver is already received very un- 
favorably within the province. The municipality of Am- 
sterdam consider it as bearing with unequal weight upon that 
city ; the regencies of the other cities, consisting generally of 
persons upon whom this tax will operate more than upon 
the mass of the people, will ral^se objections against it, and 
the legislative assembly will again be obliged to hunt for 
expedients. If a suspicion should arise from these observa- 
tions that the affairs of the country are seen through a prej- 
udiced medium by the writer, the perusal of an address 
from the States General to the several provincial Assemblies 
will serve to shew how far the facts are demonstrated, and 
how far the opinions are rational. It is contained in the 
Leyden Gazette herewith inclosed. 

The consequence of this internal disunion proceeding from 
many different sources is that the country rnust be governed 
by a foreign power. The harmony, which has hitherto 
subsisted between the French government and that which 
has arisen under their auspices here, is already less cordial 
than it was in the beginning. But in the supposable case 
of a difference between them the reasons of France will 
necessarily prevail. Under the present circumstances their 
protection Is indispensable and must therefore be purchased 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 321 

at any price. The reports still prevail of an armistice 
between France and Prussia. The French army of Sambre 
and Meuse have withdrawn from Emmerich, and retired 
from the Prussian dominions bordering on this country. 
The Prussian Army has also quitted the banks of the Rhine 
and marched into Westphalia. The sieges of Luxemburg 
and Mentz are, at present, the only military operations 
going forward in this quarter, but it is expected the cam- 
paign will soon open more extensively, and on the part of 
Great Britain and the Empire it will be pursued, it is said, 
with the peculiar energy that characterizes the last effort 
for the attainment of a favorite object. 
I am with great respect, &c. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 

[Oliver Wolcott] 

The Hague, April loth, 1795. 
Sir: 

Upon my arrival at Amsterdam in November last, the 
situation of the funds of the United States in Europe and 
the established mode whereby provision was made for satis- 
faction of the calls for payments of interest so frequently 
returning at Amsterdam and at Antwerp were altogether 
unknown to me. As the subject had not been mentioned 
in my instructions I presumed that it was not considered as 
requiring particular attention from me, and as the circum- 
stances have rendered some intervention on my part neces- 
sary, I take the liberty of inclosing herewith my correspond- 
ence relative to the payment of the interest due in December 
upon the Antwerp loan. 

During my first visit to Amsterdam one of the holders of 
the Antwerp obligations, who was at that time a refugee 

Y 



322 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

from Brabant, came to me and inquired whether the in- 
terest usually paid by Mr. De Wolf in December could not 
be paid at Amsterdam or elsewhere. I mentioned the cir- 
cumstances to Mr. Hubbard, and then learnt from him 
that the interest payable by Mr. De Wolf had hitherto 
been annually remitted by the Amsterdam bankers, but 
that it had not been sent as usual for the payment then 
approaching. 

Within a few days after the 1st of December I had several 
applications from the creditors of the Antwerp loan similar 
to that I have already mentioned. I thought it necessary 
to pay attention to a circumstance which might interest 
in some measure the credit of the United States, and wrote 
on the 7th of the month to the bankers at Amsterdam, as 
may be seen together with their answer in the papers in- 
closed, marked No. i. 

As they had not received their usual orders to remit the 
money, and I had no authority to give them, the matter 
rested in this situation until the 31st of the same December. 
They wrote me that they had then received their orders to 
make the remittance, and had informed Mr. De Wolf they 
would supply him so soon as the remittance should be allowed 
by the government of this country. The engagement to 
make the remittance was considered by me as sufficiently 
positive, but it was made contingent. The obstacle arising 
from the prohibitions of the government here had not been 
mentioned before, and I presumed It was not insuperable ; 
but it strongly confirmed me in the opinion I had already 
formed, that my particular attention to this business would 
be proper and necessary, though I had no particular instruc- 
tions relative to it. 

I knew the remittance was still impracticable, not for the 
reason mentioned in their letter, but from another fact of 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 323 

which I had recently been Informed and which is noticed 
in my answer to the Bankers dated January 13th. This 
letter and answer together with their reply are comprised 
within the mark No. 2 of the inclosed copies. 

On the 19th of January the French troops arrived at 
Amsterdam, and from that time the communication with 
Antwerp was restored and the prohibition against the trans- 
mission of money ceased. On the same day I had with 
Messrs. William Willink and Hubbard a conversation in 
which the former gentlemen made the observations which 
I related in the last letter I had the honor of writing you, 
dated February 2d. These observations were variant from 
the letter of December 31st, new reasons were alleged for not 
pursuing orders received, and I was convinced beyond all 
question that my particular attention to the affair had be- 
come an essential part of my duty. But all the same I had 
so little hope of obtaining the transmission of the money 
that in my letter of February 2, will be found my decided 
opinion, that in case Mr. De Wolf should soon be liberated 
the payment of interest due on his loan would depend upon 
his power to advance the money. 

Though the observations of Mr. Willink so soon after the 
letter of December 31st were somewhat unexpected, I thought 
it unnecessary to enter upon a discussion on the subject, 
and observed only that Mr. De Wolf being in captivity it 
was still impossible to send him the money, and while I 
expressed my full approbation of several other arrangements 
which they had taken at that critical period, and which 
they communicated to me, at the same time I kept an entire 
silence as to this particular determination. 

On the nth of March I was informed that Mr. De Wolf 
was again at liberty, had returned to Antwerp, and was 
expecting the remittance from Amsterdam to pay his inter- 



324 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

ests due In December. I wrote the next day to the bankers, 
and a correspondence ensued, marked No. 3 in the within 
copies, which terminated In a positive refusal by them to 
send the money to Mr. De Wolf. This was indeed what 
I had expected, and what I presumed it would be impossible 
for me to counteract, destitute as I was of orders and even 
of authority. 

Hitherto there had been no communication whatever 
between Mr. De Wolf and me upon this business, but at the 
same time when the letter from Amsterdam of 17 March 
was delivered to me I also received one from him of the 16, 
the copy of which herewith sent Is marked No. 4. 

I did not feel myself authorized to accept the proposal 
to borrow money at an Interest for this payment, but the 
offer gave me an argument which I was persuaded would be 
more convincing to the minds of our bankers In engaging 
them to make the remittance than anything I had before 
been able to use. A second correspondence took place, the 
copies of which are under the mark No. 5, the result of 
which was that they authorized Mr. De Wolf to draw upon 
them for the money. 

The remaining copies within, marked No. 6, are of letters 
which afterwards passed between Mr. De Wolf and me. 
They only serve to show the termination of the business. 
From the perusal of the whole correspondence an accurate 
judgment may be formed of the dispositions, at Amsterdam 
relative to the Antwerp loan, and from the whole course of 
circumstances which have occurred in this transaction I am 
obliged to repeat an observation made in my last letter, 
that nothing beyond the line of the most rigorous duty will 
ever by done by those gentlemen to facilitate the payment 
of that Interest. I may add that so far as the punctual 
fulfillment of that obligation Is an object worthy of attention 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3 25 

to the United States, and so long as it is made dependent 
upon any agency of theirs, it becomes indispensable to give 
them no plausible reason to hesitate a moment in making 
the remittances according to their order. 

Since the affair was finished I have received the letters 
which you did me the honor of writing me on the ist and 5th 
of December last with the duplicate and triplicate at the 
same time. They came with a letter from Mr. Pinckney 
urgently demanding a remittance of 303,115 [florins] accord- 
ing to the bill of which your letters advised me. I wrote 
to the gentlemen at Amsterdam on the subject. They have 
answered Mr. Pinckney, and sent him a draft for £3000 
sterling, as being the only unengaged balance belonging 
to the United States in their hands. 

They suppose that the principal object of the bill was to 
place the funds out of the reach of danger, and as the danger 
which might be contemplated at the time when the bill was 
drawn is now past, they think it unnecessary to send the 
whole amount of the bill. I presume from your favor of 
December 5th and from Mr. Pinckney's letter to me, that 
the money was intended for some particular employment, 
but when they say they have not the money to send, the 
only part left for me is acquiescence. 

There will considerable payments become due on the 
first of June. I presume the gentlemen at Amsterdam will 
be prepared for them. 

The two millions which were proposed to be borrowed to 
be at the disposition of the Minister at Lisbon seem to be 
altogether out of the question. The previous advice from 
him has not been received, and could probably not be fol- 
lowed by a successful loan if it were. Business of all kinds 
is very much at a stand. There is at the present moment 
no sort of confidence in anything, but perhaps that of public 



326 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

loans Is more essentially impaired than any other. ^ Be- 
sides the calls for money for Internal exigencies are so 
numerous and so imperious, that there is no prospect of a 
return of the superfluity from whence the public loans were 
heretofore supplied. 

I have taken occasion from my correspondence with Mr. 
De Wolf to inquire of him, whether there is any probability 
that a loan of two or three millions may become practicable 
at Antwerp very soon. His answer makes the circumstance 
dependent upon a variety of contingencies, some more and 
some less probable than others. He has however requested 
to correspond occasionally with me upon the subject of 
American credit, and I presume will give me the earliest 
Intimation of any occurrence that may take place favorable 
to the success of any loan that might be proposed. 

The zeal of our bankers at Amsterdam for the honor and 
interest of the United States needs no stimulus, but It will 
never be more active than while credit may be obtained and 
Is deserved at Antwerp. 

I have the honor, &c. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 33 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, April 14, 1795. 
Dear Sir: 

The popular commotions at Paris mentioned In a late 
letter, of which the scarcity of provisions is represented 
as the pretence, and the intrigues of the Jacobin party as the 
cause, became from day to day more alarming until the first 
of the present month, on which day a very numerous col- 

* American 5 per cent stock was quoted at 92, though the interest was nearly 
due. In June they reached 97 @ 98 ex interest. 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 327 

lection of people forced the doors of the Convention, filled 
the Hall of its session for several hours, interrupted every 
member who addressed them by vociferations for bread, and 
finally retired upon information that the armed force of 
Paris was marching to the relief of the Convention. When 
the freedom of deliberation was restored to the Assembly 
they declared the city of Paris to be in a state of siege, and 
gave the command of the Parisian army to General Piche- 
gru, who happened then to be in Paris, where he had re- 
cently arrived to concert arrangements for the ensuing cam- 
paign, previous to his assuming the command of the Army 
of Rhine and Moselle. The most liberal extension was 
given to his powers for the purpose of restoring order and 
tranquility, but this special authority was to continue only 
so long as the danger which existed.^ 

The process which had been carried on with certain for- 
malities against the four members - of the former Com- 
mittees was abruptly broken off, and a decree was passed 
that they should be immediately transported out of the 
Republic. 

Eight members among the most violent of the remaining 
Jacobins were ordered to be arrested and sent to the castle 
of Ham in Picardy, and although every effort was made to 
prevent the execution of these decrees yet it was finally 
effected, and on the 5th instant nine more members of the 
Convention were ordered under arrest. From the most 
recent accounts it appears that the public tranquility Is 
restored, and that General Pichegru was on the point of 
setting out to join the army. 

The object of those by whom this insurrection was Insti- 
gated is generally said to have been the dissolution of the 

* Insurrection of 12 Germinal (April i), the reaction from the Jacobin "terror." 
^ Barrere, Collot d'Herbois, Billaud Varennes and Vadier. 



328 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

Convention. It is probable that the subsequent purpose 
was very different among those who combined together in 
this transaction ; that of the Jacobins to restore the reign of 
popular societies and Revolutionary Committees, and that 
of the Royalists to crown the infant prisoner in the Temple. 
That a plan of the latter kind was connected with the events 
of that day appears probable from various circumstances. 
I have already mentioned the symptoms of sedition and prel- 
ude to insurrection, which took place at the same moment 
throughout this province. It is now known that it appeared 
equally in the other provinces of this Republic, and it was 
on the same day and at the same hour when the attack was 
made upon the Convention at Paris. What connection 
it had with any Prussian negotiation now on foot is impossi- 
ble for me to discover. The armistice between the Prussian 
and French armies had at that time commenced. The 
French had quitted the Prussian territories beyond the 
Rhine on the frontiers of this country. The Prussian army 
under General Mollendorf was marching into Westphalia. 
A report was propagated with a confidence which seemed 
to make the very improbability of the fact an argument for 
its truth, that the French armies in this country would 
immediately withdraw, and that the Prussians were already 
within this territory. 

This conjuration of Prussians was it seems equally used 
at Paris, where it was reported there were 30,000 of them 
in the Bois de Boulogne, only four miles out of the city; 
and absurd as the story was, a member of the Committee 
of Surety General thought it necessary to go personally 
to the place in order to ascertain what was the fact. 

There is indeed a negotiation of public notoriety proceed- 
ing between French and Prussian ministers at Basle, and the 
present armistice is generally supposed to be simply prelimi- 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 329 

nary to the conclusion of a peace. If the hopes of the 
Orangelsts or the fears of the Patriots here, hopes and fears 
neither of which are avowed, but which neither party can 
disguise, could be admitted as proofs. It would be certain 
that the situation of this country Is the principal object of 
their negotiations. In every other respect the parties are 
supposed to be agreed. 

The hopes of the ancient Court party are that the French 
by the treaty will stipulate to withdraw their troops and, 
without Interfering with the affairs of this people, merely 
abandon the party triumphant hitherto by their protection. 
This is all they wish, and they are perfectly sanguine that 
in such case the Stadtholder would be restored and the 
present government annihilated in less than a week of time. 

On the other hand the plenipotentiaries have not been 
received by the Convention, and the Committee of Public 
Safety with whom they are negotiating demand conditions 
to the conclusion of the alliance almost impossible to per- 
form, and which have given an alarm to the Patriots, 
which is the more plainly seen from the endeavours to con- 
ceal it. One hundred millions of guilders to be paid in 
specie, a loan of an equal sum, the ships which compose the 
relics of their navy, the fortresses on their frontiers, such 
are the demands which though now reduced by one-half 
are still considered as an intolerable price for an alliance that 
Is Indispensable. Yet even these terms will be submitted 
to, grievous as they are, if the alternative Is to be abandoned 
to their own defence. The French government can un- 
doubtedly prescribe its own conditions, but if they insist 
upon receiving even the one hundred millions, they must 
promise the services of their armies here to ensure the 
collection of the money. 

The disunion among the people here and their dissatis- 



330 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

faction with the government as it now stands increase from 
day to day. The calling of a national convention is yet 
much talked of, but the present possessors of government do 
not appear anxious to be relieved from their burden of public 
authority, or to lay aside the extraordinary weight of re- 
sponsibility that rests upon men who, under a semblance 
of popular election not remarkably accurate or regular, have 
torn up by the roots an ancient Constitution, and established 
in its stead a temporary dominion, equally variant from the 
former practice and the present theory, a dominion the 
measures of which must perpetually recur for justification 
or excuse to the necessity of the case, and which nothing but 
the present prospect of its speedy termination renders for 
a moment tolerable. 

At any rate, and under any course of events now within 
the bounds of probability, this Republic may be said to be 
irretrievably ruined. For besides the sums required by 
France, one hundred and twenty-five millions of guilders 
are necessary to supply the payment of arrearages due by 
the former government. With a commerce stagnated, with 
manufactures scarcely extant, with public payments sus- 
pended, with a country which has just suffered the invasion 
of an enemy, and the most destructive protection of an ally, 
subjected at once to ravages of war and the ruin of inun- 
dations, with a people divided Into two parties, nearly 
equal, inveterate against nothing so much as one another, 
with a dominant party discordant among themselves and a 
national character timid, irresolute, averse to sacrifices and 
considering property as the most precious of all human 
blessings, the most sanguine Patriot can discover In the 
future destiny of this country nothing but subjection, aggra- 
vated by the recollection of its former glories, and wretched- 
ness, embittered by the memory of its former opulence. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 331 

The expedition from Toulon supposed to have been in- 
tended against Corsica is abandoned. A partial engagement 
between the French and English squadrons in the Mediter- 
ranean has taken place. The former have lost two ships 
of the line and taken one. 

The misunderstanding between the courts of St. Peters- 
burg and Berlin becomes more accredited from day to day, 
and it is probable that the King of Prussia has reason to 
take umbrage from a negotiation, the object of which is an 
alliance between Austria, Russia and Great Britain. 

It is this day reported that a courier has arrived, bringing 
to the French Representatives in this place intelligence, 
that a peace has been concluded between the Republic of 
France and the King of Prussia.^ 

I received two days since a letter from Mr. Pinckney of 
March 30th, in which he mentions his intention to proceed 
in about a fortnight from that time upon his mission to 
Madrid. He sent me by the same conveyance a packet 
from the Department of State containing the newspapers 
to the 19th of December. 

I have the honor &c. 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

The Hague, April 25, 1795. 

• •••••* 

It has not been without difficulty that the ardour of the 
popular Societies has been suppressed by the superior 
energy of their new ally's friendly counsels. These popular 
Societies seem destined every where to grow as a monstrous 
wen upon the body of Liberty. In this country there is 
scarce a town or village ever so small in which they have 

1 A treaty was signed April 5. 



332 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

not sprung up since the Revolution ; but hitherto they have 
been harmless, because they have been Impotent. When 
the French armies entered the province of Holland, the com- 
missioners of the Convention published a proclamation 
promising to respect the Independence of the Batavian 
people, but declaring at the same time that they would 
repress all excesses between the inhabitants . The only occa- 
sions upon which they have been obliged to carry this de- 
termination into effect has been furnished by the popular 
Societies. 

It has been more than once proposed to me, and even 
urged upon me to become a member of that which has been 
formed In this place. I have excused myself upon the 
ground of being a stranger, and of the Impropriety which 
I should commit in taking any part personally In the politics 
of the country. This answer has been sufhclent, but not 
satisfactory. The Patriots here say that they are our only 
friends ; that the Orange party detest us, and therefore that 
we are not equitable in preserving a neutrality between 
them. 

As to the dispositions of the Orangelsts, there is too much 
truth in the assertion of their adversaries. The Court party, 
and all the former governing party here, never look upon 
the United States but with eyes of terror and aversion, 
sometimes shaded with a veil of affected Indifference, and 
sometimes attempted to be disguised under a mask of respect 
and veneration. I speak not of an universal sentiment. 
There are exceptions among the thinking and respectable 
part of the faction ; but my reference is to the general senti- 
ment of that class. I have had repeated opportunities of 
observing it, and if the situation of the whole party had been 
such as to admit of any sentiment relative to them but com- 
passion, I believe I should have been disposed before this 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 333 

to return them all their gall, and to exult In the foundation 
of their fears. But their humiliations, from the time when 
I arrived to this day, have been such as would disarm any 
enmity but that of party. I have therefore invariably 
avoided every act that could be charged with partiality 
favorable to the Patriots^ as against the others, not from 
regard to them, but to my own duty.^ 

It was, therefore, unnecessary for me to look for motives 
to justify my refusal, to the principles upon which I have an 
aversion to political popular Societies In general. To de- 
stroy an established power these Societies are undoubtedly 
an efficacious instrument. But in their nature they are fit 
for nothing else, and the reign of Robespierre has shewn 
what use they make of power when they obtain Its exer- 

Our American Jacobins, I Imagine, will be puzzled to fix 
upon their creed as to French aff"alrs. I question whether 
they will give at full length the debates In the Convention 
of the present time. If they do, you will perceive that 
Jacobin Clubs, Sans Culottism, Demagogie (if we have no 
word to express this Idea, It is not for want of the thing,) 
and all the madness and all the hypocrisy, which It was so 
long a fashion to profess and to admire, are now rated at 
their true value. There Is however one fundamental 
political error, from which France has not yet recovered ; 
it Is the unqualified submission, and the unwise veneration 
for the opinion publique, which Is in its nature inconsistent 
with any regular permanent system of government or of 
policy. Until they have the courage to explode this doc- 
trine, they will not only be without a constitution, but 
totally destitute of the means of forming one. . . . 

^ Adams, Memoirs, February 12, 1795. 



334 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 35 [Edmund Randolph] 

Amsterdam, May ist, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

The immediate destiny of this country remains unsettled, 
and as no events of material Importance become public, 
there Is little Intelligence to be given that deserves communi- 
cation. The fate of this country and Indeed of all Europe 
appears to be suspended upon operations, the course of 
which Is not at present discovered. Curiosity, faction, and 
interest are busied In every part of Europe to penetrate, to 
color, and to invent measures of policy for the sovereigns of 
this hemisphere. Every hour of the day has Its rumor, 
which becomes more or less accredited, and among the nu- 
merous and contradictory reports which are all circulated 
with the same degree of confidence. It Is extremely difficult 
to distinguish between those which are founded In truth, and 
those that are false. 

My last letters have mentioned the circumstance of at- 
tempts at sedition, practised at the same time on the first 
day of the last month at Paris and Amsterdam, as well as 
in many other parts of France and Holland. The immediate 
occasion which produced the riotous symptoms here was a 
report, that peace had been concluded between France and 
the King of Prussia, and that the French had by the treaty at 
least determined to abandon the party who have recently 
under their auspices effected a revolution of government 
here. It was indeed true that at that time a treaty of peace 
was upon the point of conclusion between those two powers, 
and that It has since been signed and ratified. But its 
public articles contain no arrangement whatever relative 
to this Republic. It is probable that the secret articles 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 335 

are equally silent upon the subject, or that they postpone 
the definitive arrangement until the period of a general 
pacification. 

But the present government find themselves very much 
distressed by the situation of their affairs. The alliance 
with France which they have been so long soliciting is not 
made ; the conditions for it amount to no less than a con- 
siderable dismemberment of a territory already so small as 
to be very ill qualified to suifer diminution. The mutual 
dissatisfaction between the parties is daily increasing. The 
demands which have been made by the Committee of Public 
Safety as the basis of the alliance are so great, so burdensome 
to the interests, and so derogatory to the Independence of 
the people, that the opinion is not without plausibility, 
which supposes they are intended only for the purpose of 
postponing any positive engagement whatever, and that 
the French policy is to keep the affairs of this country really 
in their own hands, so that they may be at any time arranged 
in such a manner as may be most advantageous to the in- 
terest of France. 

The King of Prussia, besides his intimate and double 
connection with the Stadtholderlan family, Is with Great 
Britain bound by the treaty to support the Constitution 
of this Republic as It was settled In 1787. The party of the 
former government here became more and more sanguine 
in their hopes that he will restore the Stadtholder by means 
of an armed force. They are still convinced that it has been 
a subject of negotiation in the late treaty, and that the 
French have by secret articles consented to the return of 
the Stadtholder. The universal opinion of the party is in 
itself of no weight. The utmost extravagance of a fairy tale 
is the essence of probability, in comparison with the stories 
which these people receive and propagate with equal eager- 



336 THE WRITINGS OF [179S 

ness every hour of the day. But in this instance there are 
circumstances which serve to give at least a color of plausi- 
bility to their hopes. The most important of these cir- 
cumstances are the difficulty raised against the conclusion 
of the French alliance and the conduct of the King of Prussia. 
With respect to the first I have mentioned the reasoning 
that is held ; the latter has certainly a suspicious appearance 
to say no more. The army under General MoUendorf is 
stationed in Westphalia, close upon the frontiers of this 
country and within three days march of Amsterdam. The 
question is why has that Army been placed there ? It is 
not an usual station for an army, and since the peace with 
France they cannot be left there to protect the territory, 
since that can be in no danger. The conclusion drawn from 
this argument is, that this army is destined to restore the 
Stadtholder. 

There is a rumor current at the Hague of a fact still more 
decisive. The present States General have sent letters of 
recall to most of the public Ministers of the former govern- 
ment, and among others to Mr. de Reede, the Minister at 
Berlin. The report is, that when he presented those letters 
to the King of Prussia his Majesty told him to pay no sort 
of attention to them, that he should still consider him as the 
Minister of the United Provinces, that he did not acknowl- 
edge the present pretended government of this country, 
and required him to give them notice of it. Whether this 
account is accurate or not I have not been able to ascer- 
tain, but I have reason to suppose it not without founda- 
tion. 

The reasoning upon these premises stands thus. The 
King of Prussia is bound by the treaty to guaranty the 
ancient Constitution of this country, that is to protect the 
Stadtholder. The French have expelled the Stadtholder, 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 337 

and the present government have abolished the office. But 
France and Prussia have made a peace ; that peace necessa- 
rily implies either that France shall abandon the Dutch 
Patriots, or that Prussia shall abandon the Stadtholder. 
The conduct of both parties furnishes evidence that the 
former has been done. The French government avoids 
all engagements with the Patriots, which can entitle them 
to demand a continuance of assistance. The King of 
Prussia formally refuses to recognize the present govern- 
ment there, and has sent a powerful army to be ready when- 
ever he shall think proper to enforce his disavowal. 

These circumstances have perhaps contributed to main- 
tain and to strengthen the opinion which Is very common 
here and in France, that the governments of that country 
and of Prussia are agreed upon the restoration of the Stadt- 
holder and of the former government here. But on the other 
hand a member of the Committee of Public Safety has most 
explicitly declared that the rumor was utterly destitute of 
foundation, and that it was invented and propagated by a 
calumny equally malignant and absurd. It Is also said to 
be as unequivocally for the interest of Prussia, that the 
Patriots here should be supported, as It Is for that of France. 
The restoration of the Stadtholder would only give these 
provinces again to Great Britain. This Is well known to the 
Prussian Cabinet by experience. Since the Revolution 
of 1787 the British government has been much more absolute 
at the Hague than In London, whereas that of Prussia, so far 
from possessing the smallest particle of influence, has been 
repeatedly unable to obtain justice upon several complaints. 
Prussia might have prevented in all probability the success 
of the French armies and their arrival at Amsterdam, had 
she been so disposed, and it Is the utmost extravagance to 
suppose that what neither of the two powers would do, 
z 



338 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

merely to avoid or prevent the expulsion of the Stadtholder, 
they should now have agreed to for his restoration. 

I am informed from persons to whom the true state of 
affairs is certainly known, that the alliance with France is 
expected to be brought to a conclusion within a week or ten 
days. Should this expectation be realized, the present 
order of things in this country will doubtless acquire a stabil- 
ity which it has hitherto wanted. If it should continue to 
be delayed, the rumors and suspicions I have mentioned will 
acquire some small degree of probability. It is at least 
certain^ as I have already had the honor of writing you more 
than once, that the present administration will accept the 
treaty upon any conditions be they what they may, and 
therefore if the Treaty is not soon finished, it will be because 
the French government are determined not to conclude. 

The national sentiment in this country is universally sub- 
ordinate to the spirit of party. On my arrival here I was 
somewhat surprised to see an invaded country, in which 
one half the nation was panting for the success of the in- 
vaders, and placing the summit of their happiness in being 
conquered. The actors have since changed, but the scene 
is the same ; and I still see one half the nation whose only 
hope consists in the prospect of being conquered again. The 
hatred of the opposite faction is stronger than the love of 
country, and this political passion is so universal, that the 
only individuals I have met with who could be named as 
exceptions are equally obnoxious to both parties. 

The European horizon, which has for a moment had the 
appearance of clearing up, seems at present to threaten a 
deeper gloom than ever. Russia is said to be upon the point 
of a rupture with the Turks and with Sweden, perhaps with 
Prussia. The Baron de Stael has been received by the Na- 
tional Convention, as ambassador extraordinary from the 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 339 

King of Sweden with the French Republic. The Russian 
system is well known, and although it must eventually 
clash with that of Great Britain, it is supposed that those 
two powers are like to unite from the coincidence of their 
present immediate pursuits. Thus the empire of the earth 
and of the ocean is to be attained in concert, and divided 
by agreement, and the question which of the parties shall 
eventually grasp the whole to be left for the decision of 
futurity. 

I have the honor &c. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, May 4, 1795. 
Dear Sir: 

Mr. Wilcox has not yet been here, but sent me from Ham- 
burg your favor of February 11, which was the first letter I 
have been happy enough to receive from you since we left 
America. When he comes here, I shall be happy to show 
him every civility in my power. 

It is extremely pleasing to hear that the elections for the 
ensuing completion of the Senate have been so favorable. I 
believe the time is approaching, when even the triple brass 
of political impudence will melt away before the wisdom of 
the pacific and neutral system, which struggled with so 
many interests and so many passions before it could gain a 
firm establishment.^ Only one letter from me had been 

' "All the clouds which appeared to be gathering so thick round our horizon 
seem to be dispersing, and I hope we shall not again, during the present European 
convulsions be exposed to the danger of sliding or being drawn into the war. The 
system of neutrality, which struggled so hard with foreign influence, foreign inso- 
lence and injustice, as well as with internal faction and rapacity, before it could 
obtain a solid and immovable footing, has proved as glorious to the honor, as it 
has been advantageous to the interests of the United States. There nevxr was 
a war more ruinous than the present has been to all the parties engaged in it. 



340 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

received by the Secretary of State, when you wrote. I had 
at that time written nearly thirty, twenty of which might 
have reasonably been supposed by me to have arrived on 
the nth of February. I have sent my letters not only by 
every vessel that has been known to me from this country, 
(and I have taken particular pains to be informed of every 
opportunity,) but from France, from England, from Ham- 
burg and from Bremen. How many of my letters miscarry 
in the conveyance it is impossible for me to say ; but the 
state of Europe since I came here, and especially the situa- 
tion of this country, have been such as renders the trans- 
mission of letters extremely precarious. For the last four 
months almost we have been secluded from the regular means 
of communication with all Europe excepting France, and 
no dependence to be placed upon the security of that. 
Nothing can be committed to post offices, where the practice 
of reading the letters is so openly professed, that nobody 
thinks of sealing a paper sent through that channel. En- 
Sweden and Denmark are the only European powers of any magnitude, that have 
been able to preserve their nationality, and they are now reaping largely the bene- 
fits of so wise a policy. 

" It is to the example of the American government that they are indebted for hav- 
ing preserved it, and this fact is incontestible, for I have heard it avowed without 
hesitation by some of their official characters, certainly well acquainted with the 
truth." To Dr. Thomas Welsh, April 26, 1795. Ms. 

"A little wisdom and a little moderation is all we want to secure a continuance 
of the blessings, of which faction, intrigue, private ambition and desperate fortunes 
have concurred in exertions to deprive us. The government of the United States 
need not even appeal to the judgment of posterity, whose benedictions will infallibly 
follow those measures which were the most opposed. The voice of all Europe 
already pronounces their justification; the nations which have been grappling 
together with the purpose of mutual destruction, feeble, exhausted, and almost 
starving, detest on all sides the frantic war they have been waging; those who have 
had the wisdom to maintain a neutrality have reason more than ever to applaud 
their policy, and some of them may thank the United States for the example from 
which it was pursued." To Abigail Adams, May 16, 1795. Ms. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 341 

trusting dispatches to the care of individuals is but little 
more safe. It exposes them often to delays, to carelessness, 
and even to total failure. With all these inconveniences I 
have sent since my arrival nearly forty letters to the Depart- 
ment of State alone, and shall continue to write by every 
opportunity that occurs from hence, and as frequently as 
may consist with common prudence through France and 
England. 

The information that my first letter was satisfactory, was 
extremely pleasing to me, because it shows that it was re- 
ceived with an indulgence which all my correspondence will 
need. I have, indeed, had little apprehension of incurring 
the censure of writing too little. My principal fear has been 
lest the charge of an opposite fault should be applicable, that 
of repeating many times the same observations, and descend- 
ing too much into the detail of minute circumstances. In 
spite of the best possible inclination, too, and notwithstand- 
ing admonition from you and intimation from Mr. Randolph, 
I have sometimes given a latitude to opinions upon actors 
and events, which perhaps will be thought indiscreet. How- 
ever this may be, I presume the style of my correspondence 
must be tolerably well known by this time, and if any mate- 
rial variation is desired, it will doubtless be Intimated to 
me. 

The political sufferings of Messrs. Van Staphorst had no 
more effect to the detriment of our credit than their present 
power has in its favor.^ It did not, indeed, affect their per- 

1 Of Van Staphorst and Hubbard he wrote to Short, April i8, 1795 : "The house 
remains as usual; but the member of it, who was so lately compelled to leave 
Amsterdam and seek refuge in voluntary banishment, was at the time when your 
letter was written a member of the municipal government of the city, and is now 
in the legislative assembly of the province. Revolutions you know are the order 
of the day." On Hubbard's attempt to go to England see Adams, Memoirs, May 
6-8, 1795. 



342 



THE WRITINGS OF [179s 



sonal credit or property. Mr. Nicholas van Staphorst, who 
on my arrival here had privately withdrawn from the pursuit 
of the then government, is now a member of the States 
General and employed in some of the most important execu- 
tive committees. He is one of the most respectable men 
engaged in the public affairs at present. 

If the situation of an American Minister at the Hague was 
not in its nature and on all common occasions tolerably 
insignificant, it would have been rendered so by the partic- 
ular situation of the country since I have been in it. When 
I first arrived the government was an agonizing patient in 
the hands of Lord St. Helens. His skill was ineffectual, 
however, to save; the patient soon expired, but its soul 
survives and waits in impatient expectation of a glorious 
resurrection. The very name of Anglomane had been long 
since entirely lost. I assure you, I have not heard the word 
pronounced since I have been In the country. And indeed 
as the circumstances were, that name would have been 
ridiculous. As well might the Helots of Lacedaemon have 
been called Spartomanes. 

At that time my situation was as unpleasant as it was 
unmeaning. It was impossible for me not to perceive that 
I was surrounded with that sort of malevolence, which a 
West India faithful African may be supposed to bear 
towards the enemy of his master. It appeared in every 
shape. It was shown by the whole hierarchy of servitude, 
from the President of the States General to the hairdresser, 
from the General Pensionary to the laquais de louage. To 
this general fact the only total exception that I can mention 
was the Stadtholder himself. I had no business to transact 
with him, saw him only as a point of form, and not more 
than three or four times. I had every reason to be satis- 
fied with his reception. From all the rest it was ill-will, 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 343 

always covered with forms of decency, often aiming at the 
disguise of poHteness, but never successfully concealed. 

Since the arrival of the French armies all these appear- 
ances have changed. A friendly disposition, a desire to 
accommodate, a respect and regard for the United States 
really felt and professed with pleasure, distinguish the 
present from the past possessors of power. Personally my 
situation is far more agreeable than it was, but nothing is 
to be done.^ The country is conquered ; Its forms of inde- 
pendence have hitherto been more or less preserved, but 
they may be laid aside whenever their friends shall think 
proper, and have already been many times in contradiction 
with the substance. The government rose upon the basis 
of French protection ; that alone continues its existence 
and with that it would infallibly vanish. It has become 
almost universally odious to the people who consider it 
as in fact more oppressive than that which preceded. The 
French Convention have not acknowledged it, and may 
withdraw their protection, which is the breath of its life, 
whenever they find it for their interest so to do. 

The restoration of the Stadtholder sooner or later is 
inevitable, and with him must come again the subserviency 
to the mistress of the sea. In every political point of view 
the Republic will in future be nothing more than a part of 

^ "My situation has indeed been as you suspected, difRcult and embarrassing; 
during the first three months it was unpleasant. But I have not been under any 
necessity from a dictate of duty to quarrel with anyone; and though I have had 
many temptations, I have as yet found no inducement to discover any partiality 
towards either of the parties. Each of them has been in its turn, not the pilot, 
but the rudder of the political ship, and the persons with whom I transacted my 
first business are all dismissed, expelled, or imprisoned. How long it will be before 
the course of the Revolution will again reverse the scene of political exaltation and 
abasement, I shall not pretend to say; but it may be observed with truth that it 
depends upon the policy of others, and not in the minutest particle upon any agency 
of their own." To Charles Adams, May 17, 1795. Ms. 



344 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

France or of Britain. I am expecting orders from the 
Secretary of State for my own regulation, and until I shall 
receive them I shall not venture to transact any business 
whatever. . . . 

Among the mille et une revolutions of France, the union 
of the Jacobins and the Royalists is one of those at which 
our Jacobins will perhaps be, or affect to be, the most 
surprised. That they are at present united in the object 
of their pursuit is unquestionable. That they will succeed 
is far from being improbable. The alliance of anarchy and 
despotism is perfectly natural, and the leading members of 
the Convention are convinced at length that Democracy 
will answer the purpose of declamation much better than 
those of government. "II faut se depouiller des prejuges 
de la Revolution," says Thibaudeau, "car si la Revolution 
a detruit des prejuges, elle en a aussi enfante." But they 
have not yet got over their passive obedience to the opinion 
publique of the moment, and of course they still proscribe 
what they adored, and adore what they proscribed in the 
interval of a single day. Such a system may properly be 
styled a democracy, but to call it a government would be 
making a violent misapplication of words. 

I am, &c. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 37 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, May 14, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

On the third instant the National Convention authorized 
the Committee of Public Safety to send two members on 
a secret mission, and in consequence of this authority the 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 345 

citizens Sieyes ^ and Rewbell arrived here on the 8th at the 
same time. The other Representatives who had been in 
mission here,- but had for some time past absented them- 
selves from the Hague, returned, and the General in Chief 
of the Army of the North ^ came from Utrecht on the same 
day. A deputation from the States General of four mem- 
bers has been appointed to confer with the French Repre- 
sentatives and has been very busily engaged with them 
to the present day."* The object of this negotiation is 
secret, and the conjectures relative to it are various. But 
as most probably none of the conjectures will be verified by 
the event, it is scarcely worth while to detail them. The 
circumstances would seem to indicate that the final agree- 
ment upon the relative situation in which France and this 
Republic are to stand is the principal point. Hitherto all 
is unsettled. The parties on both sides were very much 
dissatisfied, and even the forms of independence which 
alone had been preserved here were violated in so unequiv- 
ocal a manner and so frequently, as to have become a 
subject of derision. The present administrators of this 
government have renewed their hopes since the arrival of 
the present representatives, and suppose that the treaty 
which is to proclaim and acknowledge the independence of 
the Batavian people will be concluded in the course of very 
few days. 

In the meantime everything here is in a state of stagna- 

* He described Sieyes as appearing "to be between forty and fifty years of age, 
middling stature, spare person, pale countenance, strong features and bald head; 
dress simple, but neat, manners cool, approaching to the asperate." To Abigail 
Adams, May i6, 1795. Ms. 

^ Charles-Jean-Marie Alquier (1752-1826), Charles Cochon de Lapparent (1750- 
1825), Joseph-Charles-Etienne Richard (1761-1834), and Jean-Pierre Ramel (1768- 
1815). Richard came from Utrecht, and Cochon from Amsterdam. 

'Jean-Rene Moreau (1758-1795). * The names are given on p. 384, injra. 



346 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

tion. The new government has been arrested in the midst 
of their own exertions. They have not been permitted to 
proceed in the new organization of their army and of their 
fleet, and as the British have at this time the undisputed 
command of the channel and of the North Sea, the commerce 
of Holland is almost entirely intercepted. 

The law calling for all the gold and silver of individuals 
has been carried into execution in this province, but as the 
final period of delivery has not yet come it is not known 
whether it has been productive of any considerable quantity. 

We hear but little at present of the intended National 
Convention. The design of calling one is not abandoned, 
but that like everything else depends upon the conclusion 
of the French alliance, which is yet in expectation. 

The probability of a continental peace continues. Spain 
has not yet concluded, but it is expected she will very soon. 
A neutrality from the northern part of Germany is secured 
by the Prussian treaty. 

Two additional articles contain the limits agreed upon for 
the preservation of this neutrality. I have the honor of 
inclosing a copy of them. The sieges of Luxemburg and 
Mentz appear to be the only remaining hostilities that 
designate a state of war. The armies of all the powers at 
war are everywhere else in profound tranquility. The 
object of France, it is said, will be to open the campaign 
by directing the most formidable attack against the Austrian 
dominions in Italy. 

At sea nothing very remarkable has taken place since the 
action in the Mediterranean.^ The arrival of several ships 
from Brest at Toulon has once more given the superiority of 
force to the French In the Mediterranean. Lord Hood, 

^ The ineffective attack by Vice-admiral Hotham upon the French fleet under 
Admiral Martin, March 12-14, 1795. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 347 

however, has since sailed with a detachment to join the 
British fleet there, ^ which if eff"ected will again restore them 
to an equality, or perhaps a small superiority. Several 
French captains and other officers have arrived here. They 
are to take the command of the ships belonging to this 
Republic. This is one of the articles the most painful to 
the feelings of the new government here, and which it is 
said is insisted on as a preliminary to the conclusion of the 
treaty. 

I have visited the Representatives newly arrived as has 
also been done by the other neutral Ministers. The citi- 
zen Sieyes in the course of conversation inquired what was 
the object of the treaty signed by Mr. Jay with the British 
Ministry. 

" It is a treaty of commerce and its object is also the termina- 
tion of diiferences which had arisen between the United States 
and Great Bristain." "Relative to the forts ?" "And to several 
objects of difference. The navigation and commerce of the 
United States had suffered during the present war. The treaty 
probably contains arrangements upon the subject." "But why 
is this treaty still secret?" "It has not yet been ratified, and 
the local situation of the United States with respect to Europe 
renders it peculiarly proper that the ratification should precede 
the publication of the teaty." "Very well for the time necessary 
for the ratification, but after the time which Is sufficient has elapsed 
it is thought extraordinary that a treaty of commerce, and a treaty 
which may also relate to other objects, should remain secret. 
Among the public in Paris there are people who make it a subject 
of speculation and conjecture that the United States are waiting 
to see what the success of the war will be, and will ratify or reject 
the terms proposed by the treaty according as the events of that 
may turn." "You know, citizen, that among the public in Paris 

^ This must have been an error, as Hood was not in favor with the ministry at 
this time. 



348 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

as among the public in all places there are people who speculate 
upon every event, and are very apt to draw conclusions utterly 
destitute of foundation. The case is such in this instance. The 
treaty in question did not arrive at Philadelphia until after the 
session of Congress had come to a constitutional close. I am 
informed, however, that the President of the United States has 
called the Senate together for the purpose of submitting the 
treaty to their deliberations, and it has therefore been merely 
the result of accident if the only article yet public in Europe is 
that which stipulates that nothing in the treaty shall be construed, 
so as to militate with any previous engagement of either party." 
"And the ratification has been debated by this time ?" "Or will 
be in a very short time." 

The conversation is related as accurately as my memory 
will permit, because one of the other Representatives spoke 
to me upon the same subject some time since, and these 
repeated interrogations indicate either a suspicion, or an 
intention to be supposed suspicious, that some stipulation 
interesting to France is contained in the treaty. . . . 

I have the honor, &c. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 39 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, May 19, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

I have now the honor of inclosing a paper, containing 
the substance of the articles forming the treaty signed on the 
morning of the 17th Instant, between the French Repre- 
sentatives Sleyes^ and RewbelP and the deputies from the 
States General, Paulus, Lestevenon, Pons^ and Huber. 

^ Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes (1748-1836). 
2 Jean-Franfois Rewbell (1747-1807). 
' Matthias Pons. 



I795I JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 349 

The event serves to confirm the observation I have made 
in my preceding letters, that whatever terms might be 
exacted on the part of France would eventually be con- 
sented to in this country. 

The terms of this treaty are as advantageous to France 
and as burdensome to this people as the possibility of execu- 
tion will admit. But from the habits and feelings of the 
persons composing the present administration, Maestricht, 
Venlo, Dutch Flanders and one hundred millions of florins, 
are no object in comparison with the danger of a Stadtholder. 
The point respecting the command of the ships of war ap- 
pears to have been abandoned ; the French captains who had 
arrived at Rotterdam have returned. By the treaty the 
stipulation only purports that in case of combined opera- 
tions the commander shall be French. It is somewhat 
questionable whether the engagement to furnish during this 
campaign twelve ships of the line and eighteen frigates for 
the North Sea and the Baltic will be practicable. 

It is hardly supposable that this treaty will fail of obtain- 
ing an immediate ratification by the French National Con- 
vention.^ The great object of internal policy represented in 
a statement dated February 27, to which I beg leave to refer, 
may be considered as effected. The internal object, the 
calling of a National Convention to form a constitution of 
government for the Batavian people, may now be pursued. 
It is to be presumed that it will meet with the earliest 
attention, but whether the plan of completing this business 
immediately will prevail, or that of postponing these politi- 
cal arrangements until a time of peace and tranquility will 
be preferred, is yet to be ascertained. The Treaty makes 
this country a party to the war with France against the 
combined powers. The country is exhausted, and yet the 

* It was ratified May 27. 



3SO THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

most extraordinary exertions are required of it. Perhaps it 
will be concluded that the exigencies of the times demand 
action more than deliberation, and the formation of a con- 
stitution will be deferred till a calmer and less critical time. 

The pecuniary payment stipulated by one of the articles 
cannot be made in the present exhausted state of the na- 
tional finances without the adoption of some extraordinary 
measures. There are some appearances which might in- 
duce an expectation that considerable resources are con- 
templated in the article of confiscation. Hitherto the 
treatment experienced by the agents and partizans of the 
House of Orange and of the former government has been 
remarkably moderate. The policy of burying in oblivion 
the difi"erences which heretofore divided the people has 
been professed by the possessors of the new government, 
and forcibly recommended and inculcated by the French 
representatives and generals. A different system it is now 
said will probably be pursued. Several persons have 
within these two days been arrested, and pamphlets highly 
labored and well written are published, in order to give a 
new direction to the public opinion. 

It has already been mentioned that the municipal govern- 
ment of Amsterdam has long since ceased to harmonize 
with the general government of the province. The division 
continues, and increases from day to day. The munici- 
pality of Amsterdam have, therefore, determined to re- 
store their functions to the people from whom they are 
supposed to have received them, and a new election is 
proposed speedily to take place. 

The Orange partizans have not yet abandoned their 
hopes ; they cannot yet persuade themselves that the 
King of Prussia will leave his sister and his daughter to 
their fate. The grounds upon which their expectations 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 3Si 

are founded have been mentioned heretofore, and although 
the conclusion of this new treaty destroys almost entirely 
the scaffolding of their system, the presence of the Prussian 
army in Westphalia still flatters them with the hopes of 
being once more conquered. 

The Russian charge des affaires has received orders from 
his court to quit this place without taking leave, and is 
gone accordingly. It can scarcely be a doubt but that the 
events of the last campaign, the unparalleled success of the 
French armies, together with the change in the principles 
professed by their government and the misfortunes of 
Poland, have produced a great revolution in the policy of 
almost all the European Cabinets. The objects which 
were the original causes of the war have disappeared in the 
vortex of events that have occurred. The division of 
France, or the establishment of a government in that coun- 
try by external compulsion. Is recognized as a vain imagina- 
tion. The dread of political doctrines is equally removed, 
and the fears and jealousies which heretofore divided the 
several sovereigns of Europe have returned in all their 
force, to sow the seeds of future wars. 

A distinguished member of the National Convention 
declared about two months since, in a labored speech 
relative to the negotiations for peace, that the real enemies 
of the Republic were Britain, Austria and Russia, and he 
endeavored to prove that from those powers so much was 
to be apprehended by all the other in Europe, that France 
must naturally be the friend and ally of all the rest. The 
partition of Poland appears evidently to have occasioned 
a very serious difference between the allies, who made 
the conquest in conjunction. It has given an alarm to 
the Turks, to Sweden and Denmark, who find themselves 
henceforth exposed as the most immediate objects of 



352 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

Russian ambition. A variety of circumstances have con- 
curred to prove that Great Britain and Russia harmonize 
in their present pursuits, and it is even affirmed that a new 
alliance has been formed between them, in consequence of 
which a Russian fleet is expected to be stationed in the 
Baltic during the present campaign. It is further supposed 
that a rupture will very soon take place between Russia and 
the King of Prussia. The reciprocal advantage to be 
afforded hy Great Britain is the abandonment of Poland, 
and even the support of the Russian system there. Among 
the circumstances which corroborate these opinions are the 
recall of the British Minister who has heretofore resided 
in Poland, and the present recall of the Russian charge des 
affaires from this place. 

To counterbalance this association of Britain, Russia and 
Austria, it is supposed that the purpose of the French govern- 
ment will be to unite against it together with their own efforts 
the force of Prussia, Sweden and the Turkish Empire 
against the continental powers, and that of Holland, and 
perhaps of Spain against Britain. 

It will be undoubtedly from the intelligence you will 
receive directly from Paris, and from the officers of the 
French government In America, that the best conclusion 
may be drawn, whether the intention of exciting new enemies 
against Great Britain extends to the United States. In the 
conversations I had with the Representatives, soon after 
their first arrival here, they all assured me of their entire 
satisfaction In the neutrality of the United States. One of 
them (Richard) expressly said that the French government 
had been fully content with the assurance they had received 
from Mr. Monroe, that the treaty signed by Mr. Jay in 
November contained nothing Inconsistent with the engage- 
ments of the United States with France. It Is not to be 



I 



I795I JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 353 

dissimulated that the language held hy the citizen Sieves 
in the interview I had with him here, and of which an 
account has already been given, is of a different complexion. 
At the present moment the treaty itself may be more a 
cause of objection than its contents. 

There is one circumstance from which the most sub- 
stantial hope of a general pacification proceeds, and it is 
almost the only one, but indicates the probability of war 
more extensive than it has been hitherto. The scarcity of 
provisions is severely felt by all the nations of Europe, and 
unless the means of cultivation, which have been very much 
reduced, and the commerce which has been nearly annihi- 
lated, should be restored by the return of peace, a general 
famine will be inevitable in the course of the following 
winter, or at latest by the ensuing spring. This prospect 
appears already so evidently to all the parties that it may 
possibly contribute to the success of negotiations which 
will, perhaps, not be interrupted by the hostilities of the 
present campaign. Some considerable change may perhaps 
be expected in the Internal state of France, but what it 
will be is very uncertain, and it Is Impossible to calculate 
whether It will produce any alteration whatever In their 
external policy. 

With every sentiment of respect, &c. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

, , ^ „ The Hague, May 22, 17Q1;. 

My Dear Sir: 

My last letter acknowledged the receipt of your favor 
of February 11. That of December 2 has since reached me. 
By the same opportunity I have letters from my brother 
Charles of March 12. And I have seen Boston papers to 
the 1st of April. Our information from America Is yet 

2A 



354 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

generally indirect and our means of conveyance few, diffi- 
cult and uncertain. 

The appointment which places me here is undoubtedly 
respectable, much beyond the line of my pretensions, and 
the advantage of seeing Europe at the present moment is 
personally a subject of particular gratification to me. The 
situation which I was obliged to abandon for this gave me 
nothing, or very little in possessions, but a fair and rational 
prospect, infinitely more pleasing than those now before me. 
My sacrifice was merely of an expectancy, but a very val- 
uable one in every point of view. It was independence, 
usefulness and personal consideration ; but above all the 
increasing attachment of friends, which every probability 
led me to expect would be durable. The benefit of your 
advice and instructions, the society however interrupted 
and partial of my mother and the rest of the family, though 
I feel severely the loss of them, were yet so inevitable and 
of impossible consistency with an absence beyond the 
Atlantic, that I do not reckon them in the account. 

As it respects my country that has certainly gained 
nothing by the exchange. To speak the sentiments of my 
heart without equivocation, an American Minister at the 
Hague is one of the most useless beings in creation. The 
whole corps diplomatique here, according to a late French 
production of considerable merit, n''est plus qu\ine Assemhlee 
de nouvellistes, and the actor must have not an humble 
but a degraded idea of himself, who can be satisfied with the 
part of receiving the pay of a nation for the purpose of 
penetrating the contents of a newspaper. 

As a single private individual I flatter myself that my 
mite of contribution to the public service in America was 
more valuable than any that I can render at present. The 
retribution is equally inconsistent with propriety. At pres- 



179S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 355 

ent I am liberally paid for no service at all. There my 
only reward for considerable labor, and some political 
courage, was abuse, sometimes upon myself which was of 
very little consequence to me, but much more frequently 
upon an object entitled to all the veneration of the whole 
people, as much as he was possessed of mine, and who was 
persecuted for my oiTences with a malignancy and a bru- 
tality such as among mankind Is experienced only by virtue 
and Integrity; but which real crimes and Infamy are too 
much respected ever to suffer. 

At length, after four months of suspense upon the fate of 
this country, a treaty to acknowledge the Independence and 
sovereignty of the Batavian people without a Stadtholder 
was signed on the 17th Instant, by two members of the 
French Committee of Public Safety (Rewbell and Sleyes), 
and four deputies from the States General. 

This treaty will undoubtedly be published in the Ameri- 
can newspapers before my letter can reach you, and I hope 
It will be a subject of serious reflection to every American. 
It shows in the clearest light at what price the friendship 
and assistance of France as a Republic Is estimated by her 
own government. Let It be remembered that from the 
commencement of the war they have declared themselves 
the enemies of the Stadtholder and his government, but the 
friends and allies of the Dutch people. These friends and 
allies, after considering this territory during four months 
as a conquest, and treating it accordingly, though with all 
possible civility and some generosity, finally exact as con- 
ditions for acknowledging the liberty and Independence of 
their friends and allies, a very considerable dismemberment 
of territory, a perpetual pledge of political subserviency, 
and one hundred million of florins In cash. Noyi tali auxilio. 

These facts are the more deserving of consideration, 



356 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

because I have several reasons to suppose that the policy 
of the French government at present is to make use of the 
United States, as they are now making use of these Prov- 
inces, that is, as an instrument for the benefit of France, 
as a passive weapon in her hands against her most formi- 
dable enemy. Being at a distance from Paris and having no 
regular connection with any members of that government, 
I am unable to trace the causes of my suspicions to a very 
certain source. I have not the means of ascertaining any 
considerable variety of facts, from the combination of 
which a conclusion to warrant any affirmative declaration 
could be drawn, and the communication with France itself 
is so liable to accident, that I am unable to correspond with 
Mr. Monroe so confidentially as would be necessary to 
determine how far my conjectures are founded. 

From the occurrences of the last year, it is certain that a 
prodigious alteration in the relative position of the Euro- 
pean powers towards one another has taken place. The 
centre of combination has been equally removed by the 
victories of France and by the misfortunes of Poland. The 
drunken madness of political fanaticism has subsided sur- 
prisingly. The ruin of France remains therefore the only 
centre of union to the coalesced powers, but this principle 
is no less repulsive on one side than it is attractive on the 
other. New interests have arisen to form different combina- 
tions from those of the war as it began, and they have 
already been productive of a considerable revolution of 
policy, discovered in many public events and distinguishable 
from other circumstances. 

The tendency of these new interests is to unite the efforts 
of Austria, Russia and Britain, for the present moment, in 
one common pursuit; but it unites equally all the rest of 
Europe against them. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 357 

This combination is unquestionably formidable, and it 
has an immense advantage in the pecuniary resources of 
Great Britain. They remain at least for present occasion 
in undiminished vigor, while those of France are exhausted 
in proportion to the violence of those exertions that have 
acquired her splendid triumphs. 

It is not to be doubted but that France intends to unite 
against her three remaining rivals and enemies as many 
European powers as possible. The policy has been indeed 
clearly discovered in speeches made to the National Conven- 
tion by members of the Executive Committee, in which 
mention has escaped of nations "which had observed 
neutrality, wise in its principle, but which has become 
insufficient," where subsidies to be given for the purpose of 
causing a diversion have been suggested, and where numer- 
ous objections have been made to prove that Spain, Prussia 
and Holland are all deeply interested in the future success 
of the French cause. 

The intention of employing the United States likewise as 
an useful enemy to Great Britain has not been so openly 
avowed. And long since the arrival of the French armies 
in this country, the Representatives with whom I have had 
occasion to converse have declared themselves to be entirely 
satisfied with the neutrality of the United States. They do 
not at present say expressly the contrary, but they observe, 
that it is very extraordinary that the treaty signed by Mr. 
Jay last November should yet be kept secret. 

It is impossible that they should imagine there is any- 
thing in that treaty with which France can have any pre- 
tence to interfere. It is therefore the treaty itself, which 
does not suit these views, because they consider it as the 
means of terminating differences, which their own interest 
leads them to wish may terminate in a rupture. 



358 THE WRITINGS OF I179S 

If these conjectures have as much foundation as I appre- 
hend, the whole French Influence In America will exert 
Itself with more than usual activity to prevent the ratifica- 
tion of the treaty, and to produce at all events a war be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain, not assuredly 
from regard to our Interest, which they respect as much as 
they do that of their friends and allies the Hollanders, but 
because they are sensible of how much Importance our 
commerce is to Great Britain, and suppose that the loss 
of It would make that nation outrageous for peace, and 
compel the Minister to make it upon the terms they are 
disposed to dictate. 

It was probably the intention of the Brissotine party, the 
Executive Council, who sent Genet to America to Involve 
the United States in a war with Britain, but In such a manner 
as should be Imperceptible to ourselves, as should have the 
appearance of being entirely a war of our own, and should 
leave France free from all engagements, In full liberty to 
make her own peace, whenever she might think proper, 
and leave us to extricate ourselves as we could. This plan 
was not successful in its execution, and perhaps was aban- 
doned by the Executive Committee, which rose upon the 
ruins of the Council. To them the neutrality of the United 
States was at least as beneficial as any assistance they could 
expect from them in a state of war, or at least by appearing to 
pursue a dlfi"erent policy, they meant to make It an instru- 
ment of odium against the party they had then defeated. 
That Committee has been sacrificed in its turn. Every- 
thing done by them Is an object of execration. They are 
Jacobins, Terrorists, Royalists, drinkers of blood, robbers, 
scourges of the human race, everything that a victorious 
party can make of one that is defeated. The truth of the 
fact seems to be that the Brissotine party have resumed 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 359 

their superiority in the Convention, and have derived among 
the people some consideration, more from the detestation of 
their predecessors, than from their own merits. They have 
resumed the principles and the policy, which the decem- 
viral government had abandoned, and among the rest per- 
haps the design of fomenting a war between America and 
Great Britain. They have sent to America a new minister,^ 
to take the place of Fauchet ; a man, who has been hereto- 
fore employed by them in their revolutionary manoeuvres 
at Geneva, and who, as one of the Representatives lately a 
member of the Committee of Public Safety told me, was sub- 
stituted instead of the other, whose "talents and experience 
are found to be not equal to the importance of the mission." 

I have considered it as an indispensable duty that I owe 
to my country to express to you. Sir, my ideas and suspi- 
cions upon a subject of so much importance : in my public 
correspondence I have scarcely hinted at them, because 
they are but suspicions, and because there is another source, 
from which more accurate information is to be expected, 
and will doubtless be received. At least if my conjectures 
are groundless they will be harmless, because the state of 
affairs in America will prove them to be fallacious. If 
they are well founded, it may not be useless that the symp- 
toms breaking forth in this quarter of the world should be 
known to you, and combined with those that will discover 
themselves in America. 

If their present views really are to draw the United States 
into a war with Britain, their only motive for it must be 
to accelerate their own peace. The general sentiment of 
the French at the present moment, if I mistake not, is less 
cordial towards the Americans than it has been. They envy 

1 Pierre August Adet (1763-1832). See Correspondence of French Ministers 
(Turner), 728. 



36o THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

us the Immense advantage we have derived from our neu- 
trality ; they think we have grown rich upon their impover- 
ishment ; that we have drained them of their specie, and 
they do not scruple to charge our merchants who have 
supplied their most urgent necessities, with having taken 
advantage of their wants to extort extravagant profits upon 
their commerce. Peace has become an object of extreme 
necessity to them ; their finances, their commerce, their 
manufactures, their agriculture, their population, all by 
an inseparable chain are connected in a dependence upon 
the return of peace. Yet the brilliancy of their victories, 
and especially the security of the prevailing party, make it 
indispensably necessary to them to insist upon conditions, 
to which their enemies in the present state of affairs will 
certainly not submit. It is for their benefit alone, there- 
fore, that they wish to see us engaged, and should they 
succeed in this intention the principal, perhaps the only 
use they will make of their success will be to obtain more 
glorious terms of peace for themselves. 

The President of the United States has so decidedly 
adopted and maintained the policy of neutrality, and it has 
proved so advantageous to the country, that it is perhaps 
an idle apprehension that can imagine it will again be 
endangered. Before this letter reaches you, the question 
upon the ratification of the treaty signed in November will 
undoubtedly be decided. The die will be cast ; the point 
of peace or enmity with Britain settled. If by a ratification 
of the treaty, perhaps a coolness on the part of France will 
again be discernible, but from which no ill consequences 
whatever are to be dreaded. If the treaty should be 
rejected, the French influence and French intrigue, always 
so active and powerful among us, will become much more 
busy than they have ever been before. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 361 

On the first supposition their disappointment will have no 
serious consequence, because they have still great need of 
our supplies, because the policy of their government under 
every possible variation will always be to conform the 
style of their pretentions in their political relations with 
us to the degree of firmness or of acquiescence discovered 
on our part, and because our friendship and neutrality must 
be more agreeable and advantageous to them than a state 
of variance. Failing in their favorite object, they will 
eventually content themselves with that which they con- 
sider as the next best, and very possibly the situation of 
their internal concerns may once more make it the interest 
of a prevailing faction to alter the system of external policy, 
In order by the restoration of cordiality with their neighbors, 
to cast an odium upon their rivals at home. 

If the treaty should not be ratified, the French will exert 
themselves for the purpose of hurrying us into a war, which 
may hasten their means of making peace, and In which they 
may be under no obligation of making a common cause with 
us. Their partizans, perhaps, in declamations or in news- 
papers will promise wonders from their co-operation ; their 
official characters possibly may employ a great number of 
what they call phrases, but will have no power to contract 
any substantial engagements ; we shall be friends, brothers, 
allies, fellow-freemen, loaded with all the tenderness of 
family affections introduced by a political prosopopeia 
into national concerns, and the final result of the whole 
matter will be, that all this tender sympathy, this amiable 
fraternity, this lovely coalescence of liberty, will leave us 
the advantage of being sacrificed to their Interests, or of 
purchasing their protection upon the most humiliating and 
burdensome conditions, and at the same time of being 
reduced to the condition of glorying In our disgrace, and 



362 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

hailing the instrument of our calamity as the weapon of our 
deliverance. 

I wish that the situation of affairs in America may be 
such as shall afford a full demonstration, that these are 
ideas merely visionary, and above all I wish that we may 
never have occasion for any political connections in Europe. 
The alarming prospects of famine, which threaten every 
part of this hemisphere, may perhaps contribute more than 
any other circumstance to a general pacification, which if 
it should be effected will in truth be nothing more than a 
suspension of arms. 

The internal state of France is critical, and will probably 
experience a considerable change in the course of the present 
year. It is impossible, however, to anticipate at this dis- 
tance what turn it will take. They are weary of their 
revolutionary government, and universally convinced that 
the Constitution which has been accepted can never be 
carried into execution in its present state. As they do not 
yet venture to lay it entirely aside, they have contrived 
to propose a supplementary addition under the name of 
organic laws} A committee of eleven - members has been 
chosen by the Convention to prepare them and the result 
of their labors will soon be presented to the Assembly. The 
weakness of their present government is the principal sub- 
ject of complaint at this time, and the principles of modera- 
tion are found incompetent to repress the movements of 
popular indignation and revenge. The execution of sixteen 
persons formerly composing part of the revolutionary tri- 
bunal under the government of Robespierre, has recently 
taken place at Paris with the sanction of legal forms, but 
at Lyons the impatience of the people has anticipated the 
decision of justice, and on the 4th of this month the sanc- 

^ That is, a new constitution. ^ Appointed April 23. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 363 

tuary of the prisons was again violated, and sixty or seventy 
persons were sacrificed by the people, as an atonement for 
the cruelties of which they had been heretofore the princi- 
pal agents. 
I am, &c. 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

No. 43 [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, June 24, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

Previous to the revolution which happened in this country 
in the year 1787, in most of the cities and villages throughout 
the provinces certain clubs or popular societies had formed 
themselves, similar in their nature to those which have 
since then been so notorious in France, and to those which 
upon their model have recently arisen in the United States. 
After the victory of the Stadtholder over the patriotic 
party these societies were prohibited from assembling, and 
others, consisting only of the partizans of the House of 
Orange, were substituted in their stead. Since the arrival of 
the French armies in Holland and the revolution consequent 
upon that event, the Orange societies have been prohibited 
in their turn, and the patriotic clubs have been revived. 

The only qualification requisite to make any person eligible 
as a member of these clubs is that of being an unequivocal 
partizan. They are composed, therefore, of people in every 
different situation of society, and are very considerable in 
point of numbers. It has been indeed considered as a sort of 
test to judge of the patriotism of every individual, and num- 
bers of people become members of the clubs as they wear 
the cockade of the day, merely for the purpose of securing a 
guard against odium, and a protection from insult. 



364 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

Since the last revolution the persons vested with the 
powers of administration have observed uniformly tow- 
ards the members of the ancient government, a system of 
moderation and of conciliation equally dictated by humanity 
and by policy. The same principle has been supported and 
promoted by the officers of the French government, civil 
and military, and has hitherto been attended with very 
good consequences. The principal opposition to this system 
has arisen from the popular societies, who in several of the 
large cities have passed resolves of a different complexion, 
and in some have peremptorily demanded of the present 
magistrates to adopt measures of remedy against the mem- 
bers of the former regencies. 

These ebullitions were in general contained within 
bounds until the conclusion of the alliance with France, 
partly by the exhortations of the present magistrates, and 
principally by the superintendence of the French Represen- 
tatives and generals who, more than once, declared in the 
most positive terms that they would not suffer the execution 
of any arbitrary designs, and would protect all the members 
of the former government or others, against every attempt to 
persecute them without a specific accusation. 

The popular societies submitted, but did not acauiesce. 
On the 14th of this month, at Rotterdam, In consequence 
of a resolution taken at the society, a notification was dis- 
persed throughout the city, inviting all true patriots to 
assemble together in a public place assigned at a certain 
hour of that day. 

The meeting was numerous to the amount of several 
thousands. They deliberated, they resolved and finally 
determined to go In a body to the house where the municipal- 
ity was assembled, and send a deputation to them, demand- 
ing in the name of the people that all the members of the 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 365 

former Regency be put under arrest in their houses. That 
the former High Officer be confined in close prison, that all 
the subaltern officers of the Orange party still in employ- 
ment be immediately dismissed and others appointed on 
their stead, true Patriots and such as should be agreeable 
to the people. 

The Council of the municipality refused at first to comply 
with these demands, assigning as their reasons for this 
refusal that the citizens had not been legally assembled, 
and their deputation could not therefore be considered as 
expressing the voice of the people ; and further that, as the 
deputation alleged no cause whatever for the arrest of 
the former Regents and High Officer, the demand could not 
be complied with but by a violation of the rights of men and 
citizens, rights which they, the members of the municipality, 
had promised before God and their fellow citizens to support, 
and one article of which was that "no man can rightfully 
be accused, arrested and imprisoned but in such cases and 
according to such formalities, as have previously been 
established by law." This answer was not satisfactory to 
the people who surrounded the State House, and the munici- 
pality were soon after compelled by the fear for their own 
lives to declare, that they were obliged to choose between 
the circumstances and the lazu, and therefore adopted all the 
measures that had been thus dictated to them. 

The next day all the members of the municipality resigned 
their places, but have since consented to continue their 
functions until the Provincial Assembly shall have come to 
some determination relative to this transaction. The same 
collection of people afterwards appointed a committee, and 
sent them to the Provincial Assembly demanding: i. That 
one or more revolutionary tribunals be created for the 
purpose of revising the judicial decisions under the former 



366 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

government relative to political oflfences, and to indemnify 
the innocent for their injuries out of the property of the 
Regents at that time. 2. That all the former Regents 
of the Orange party be put under arrest; and 3. The 
dismission of all the partizans of the House of Orange from 
every species of public employment. 

On the 16 the Provincial Assembly appointed a committee 
to go to Rotterdam, and hold an amicable conference with the 
committee from the multitude that had assembled, and to 
endeavor to settle the affair in a satisfactory manner. 
The result of this conference was an arrangement, in conse- 
quence of which the members of the former Regency were 
dismissed from their arrest, giving the security of bonds to a 
large amount, and the people of the city were authorized 
to appoint a committee of vigilance to preserve the pub- 
lic peace and tranquility. Here the matter rests for the 
present. 

Something of a similar nature has occurred, it Is said, 
In some other cities, and it Is not improbable but the 
same spirit will discover itself with equal force at Am- 
sterdam. 

The generality of the party at present victorious have 
never been satisfied with the moderation that has been shown 
to the Regents and officers of the former government. 
Patriotism has considered them as offenders deserving 
punishment, private malice and resentment have viewed them 
as oppressors reduced to impotence, and therefore proper 
subjects of apprehension In their turn. Interest has looked 
only at their wealth, and supposed that it offered a just and 
plentiful supply to the present necessities of the country. 
These dispositions have been very much strengthened and 
increased by the conduct and conversation of the other party. 
The lenity they have experienced, instead of reconciling 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 367 

them to the new order of things, has only given them courage 
to hope to rail and to threaten. It is hardly conceivable 
with what imprudence they provoke severity, and bid 
defiance to a power certainly competent to ruin them. At 
the same time they are constantly feeding their own hopes 
with rumors, the credit of which rests upon no other founda- 
tion than their absurdity. A new revolution is so constantly 
the object of their wishes, that they grasp at everything 
true or false which can flatter their expectations. The 
impatience of their desires overleaps the bounds of space and 
time. They bring an English fleet upon the coast, or intro- 
duce a Prussian army into the heart of the country, with a 
facility more than practical, and, without waiting for an 
uncertain reality, they hasten to enjoy the triumph pre- 
pared for them with such rapidity that they have repeatedly 
stimulated their partisans among the populace to acts of 
riot and sedition, which it has been found necessary to 
punish. 

Such is the present state of the temper between the two 
great parties of this Republic. It is thought that it may be 
not altogether useless to have entered into some detail on the 
subject, because it may serve to give an idea of the public 
mind as it exists here at this time, and because it may indicate 
the probability of a material change In the system of internal 
policy in this Republic. The treatment of the members of 
the former government forms a part of an external system, 
and should the principles which have hitherto been pursued 
in this particular be abandoned, those which must be sub- 
stituted in their stead would unquestionably have a very 
essential operation upon the aspect of affairs throughout 
their provinces. 

Please to accept the assurances, &c. 



368 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
No. 44. [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, June 25, 1795. 
Dear Sir : 

... I have now the honor of Inclosing the translation of 
the plan for the convocation of a National Convention, which 
has been sent by the States General to the several Provincial 
Assemblies for their consideration. The probability seems to 
be that It will eventually be adopted, but the deliberations 
will be more or less deferred In the different provinces, and a 
considerable time will elapse before It will be put In execu- 
tion. 

The principal objection that I have heard against It Is, 
that It Interposes another provisional government between 
the present and that of a regular constitution, that It multi- 
plies revolutions beyond the line of necessity, and seems to 
prescribe changes merely for the sake of changing. 

This Is not however generally considered an objection of 
much weight, nor Is the plan itself a subject of much dis- 
cussion. It is Indeed impossible to conceive a people more 
Indifferent to everything relating to theories of government 
than the Batavlans. I should hazard nothing In saying 
that the law calling for the gold and silver of the citizens 
has been the subject of more animadversions In every town 
of the Republic, than the plan herewith Inclosed has been, 
or ever will be, throughout the whole territory. The plan 
Itself may perhaps give an adequate Idea of the people for 
whom It Is formed. It is the result of three months' labor 
and intelligence of a committee appointed for the purpose, 
and it Is distinguishable less perhaps for any luminous 
principles than for a minuteness of detail, which does 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 369 

not disdain even the building of benches for the voters in 
the primary assemblies. . . . 

June 26. The affair of the municipality of Rotterdam 
has not hitherto had consequences so unpleasant as was 
apprehended, the demonstration of mutual opposition has, 
indeed, more than once assumed an alarming appearance, 
but hitherto has produced no distressing events. The 
Provincial assembly annulled the order that had been 
extorted from the municipality, and discharged from their 
arrest the magistrates of the former Regency, excepting 
only the high officer Van Staveren, whose arrest is continued, 
and the irritation of the people of Rotterdam against him is 
given as the reason for the measure. They made at the 
same time a calm, rational and judicious address to the 
people who had made the irregular demands, recommending 
temper and moderation to them, and conjuring them not to 
disgrace the fair and unblemished character of the revolution 
by acts of violence, even against the most obnoxious charac- 
ters. They proposed, however, to appoint a Committee 
to examine into the conduct as well relative to concerns of 
politics as of finance of all the former regents, in order that 
those who had been the oppressors of the people should be 
compelled to make indemnity from their private fortunes. 
These measures, however, were far from being satisfactory 
to the popular society at Rotterdam. The secretary of the 
irregular assembly formally protested against the decree of 
the Provincial Assembly, and published his protest in the 
newspaper. On the 22d instant the people assembled again 
in considerable numbers. But the French commandant of 
the place, in concert with the municipality, having publicly 
declared that he should use all the force under his command 
against any attempt whatever to disturb the peace, and 
every demonstration of a determination to defend the munici- 

2B 



370 THE WRITINGS OF I179S 

pality at all hazards against any further Indignity being 
made, they finally dispersed without attempting any 
violence. 

June 50. I have this day received from the Greffier of 
the States General a card which mentions that the secretary 
of the Ambassador Extraordinary from the Republic at 
Paris has just arrived, with the ratification by the National 
Convention of the treaty of friendship and alliance, signed 
at the Hague on the 15 of May last, and Inclosing two copies 
of the treaty. I send one of them herewith. 

On the twenty-third of this month the commission of 
eleven appointed by the Convention to prepare and present 
for discussion the organic laws of the proposed French 
constitution, made their report to the assembly. They have 
abandoned without ceremony the constitution of 1793, and 
substituted in its stead much more similar to those forms of 
government which are familiar to Americans. The assembly 
are to open the discussion of the plan on the 4th of July. 

The legislative body is proposed to consist of two parts, a 
council of 500 and a council of Elders to the number of 250, to 
be renewed by halves every two years. A landed property 
of some kind is made a qualification of eligibility. The 
Council of 250 has only a negative upon the laws proposed 
by the more numerous body. 

The executive power is to consist of a directory of five 
members, one of whom is to be renewed annually, and which 
is to be presided by the members alternately each for three 
months at a time. The legislative and executive powers 
are both to be surrounded with forms of solemnity, and to be 
guarded by an armed force. These are the principal circum- 
stances which discover the prevalence of theoretic opinions 
which have been unfavorably reviewed at certain periods of 
the Revolution. The report was made by Boissy d'Anglas, 



I 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 371 

a member who has been very much distinguished of late, and 
whose intrepidity on a recent critical occasion has given 
him an extraordinary degree of popularity.^ It was re- 
ceived with great applause by the audience in the galleries, 
and appears to be equally satisfactory to the public in Paris. 
I have the honor to be, &c. 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, June 27, 1795. 
My Dear Sir : 

I received two or three days since your favors of March 26, 
April 21 and 26, all together, and I know not how to express 
the pleasure they gave me. The first and dearest of all 
my wishes is personally to give satisfaction, and obtain 
the approbation of my parents, and in a public capacity 
to justify the confidence placed in me by the appointment I 
now hold. This wish is in both parts so abundantly gratified 
by the warm and cordial expressions used in your letters, that 
I have nothing left to desire but a continuance of that kind- 
ness and indulgence which I have always experienced from 
you, and which the government has been pleased to bestow 
upon my first performances in their service. 

Every suggestion or intimation of advice from you will 
always be received with gratitude by me, because I know 
from long experience, that it will operate to my own ad- 
vantage in its use. The officer^ I mentioned to you in one 
of my first letters, and with respect to whom you give me 
a caution, never had any confidence from me. His ad- 
venture here, and his claims and those of his friends for my 

^ In the affair of i Prairial (May l), when the head of the murdered Jean 
Feraud on a pike was waved before him as he presided over the Convention. 
* Eustace. 



372 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

official services, embarrassed me not a little upon my 
first arrival. But as I was from the first moment guarded 
by my suspicions, I refused all interference in his affair 
beyond what I considered as an obligation of duty. By 
doing more I should have paid my court more eflFectually to 
the Patriots, who are now at the head of affairs, but I had 
not forgotten that I was not sent here to make myself a 
partizan of Dutch factions, and I had upon that occasion 
at least the advantage of discovering, what has since received 
ample confirmation, that I must be content with coolness 
from the patriotic party as well as from the other, and 
must reconcile myself philosophically to the certainty of 
being no favorite with either side. 

I have endeavored in my letters to you hitherto to pre- 
serve a chain of general intelligence relative to the most 
important political affairs of Europe. Since my last letter, 
or rather while I was writing it, a furious Insurrection broke 
out against the Convention, which was during two days 
upon the point of a general massacre, and one member of 
which was killed by a pistol shot, and his head was carried 
on a pike in the Hall of the Convention Itself. The revolt 
however was eventually suppressed, and as soon as the 
victory of the Assembly was ascertained, they appointed a 
military commission of five members to try all offenders con- 
cerned In that conspiracy. By this tribunal six members 
of the Convention have recently been condemned to death. ^ 
All six attempted to anticipate the execution by their own 
hands, three of them succeeded, but the rest suffered according 
to the judgement. Three other members of the Convention 
prevented even their trial by a voluntary death. Several 
others are still reserved for trial, and in all probability will 
have the same fate. All this proceeds from a deadly aver- 

' Romme, Duquesnoy, Duroy, Bourbotte, Soubrany, and Goujeon. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 373 

sion to the sanguinary system of terror pursued in the time 
of Robespierre. But this singular species of humanity, 
this energetic abhorrence of cruelty, is not confined within 
the limits of legal forms. In many of the departments the 
former murderers are murdered with as little ceremony, 
the drowners are drowned. The mere name of Terrorist is a 
title to proscription, and how often the name is given by 
private malice for the sake of producing the proscription, 
is not told. These excesses are disapproved by all the 
sober part of the nation, they are disapproved even by the 
Convention, but they are committed every day, and there is 
no power competent to restrain or to punish them. On the 
other hand the war in the Vendee again blazes out with 
extreme violence, as is said. A sort of treaty had been 
signed by the deputies of the Convention on the one side and 
the principal leaders of the rebellion on the other. The 
latter were promised pardon and protection, engaging to 
submit to the laws of the Republic. It is now said they 
were perfidiously dissimulating; that they have violated the 
pacifications. Twenty-five or thirty of them have been 
arrested and sent to Paris for trial, and the Convention 
has decreed that the violation of the treaty is an offence 
punishable with death. 

At Toulon a Jacobin insurrection was for some time 
successful. It extended to the fleet then in the harbor, and 
prevented it from sailing to meet the British fleet in the 
Mediterranean. A member of the Convention in mission 
there was driven to despair by this event, and shot himself. 
But this revolt was of short duration ; order was soon re- 
stored, and the fleet has now sailed. 

The son of Louis the i6th died in the temple on the 8th 
[10] of this month. ^ His sister, the only remaining child 

* Louis XVII. Cambridge Modern History, VIII, 389. 



374 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

of the late King, it is said, is very ill. The surgeon who 
attended the boy in his illness died a few days before 
him. A proces verbal, signed by four health officers, by 
order of the Committee of General Surety, declares that 
the death was owing to a scrofulous disease of long con- 
tinuance. 

In the midst of all these events the arms of the Repub- 
lic continue to be victorious. Luxemburg not long since 
capitulated, and a garrison of twelve thousand men re- 
turns to Germany engaging not to serve against the French 
or their allies during the war. Mentz alone now remains 
to be taken on the left side of the Rhine. A peace between 
France and the German Empire becomes probable. But 
the Emperor and Great Britain, or at least the latter, will 
remain at war. 

The perseverance of the British government is founded 
upon their confidence in their naval superiority, which is now 
established more decisively than it has ever been. The 
French government, to make a parade of commanding the 
seas, sent their large fleet of thirty-six men of war to 
cruise to and fro in the channel, through the months of 
December and January last. They enjoyed the satisfaction 
of naval empire at their full leisure. It was not for a moment 
disputed, and indeed scarcely perceived in a season when 
commerce is not fond of frequenting the channel. The 
price at which this enjoyment was purchased was the total 
loss of seven ships of the line wrecked in a tempest, and all 
the fleet so shattered and disabled, that it has not yet 
been repaired, and will be able to do nothing this season. It 
is possible that one eff'ort more will be made in the Mediter- 
ranean, but the reasonable Frenchmen begin to give up even 
the pretension of contesting the sea during the present war. 
They did expect that their success in this country could have 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 375 

proved essentially advantageous to them, and upon their first 
arrival here you would have imagined they were landing 
upon the English coast. They soon discovered their error. 
The naval force of this country was magni nominis umbra, 
and if the French did not take possession of all they found 
in the ports of this Republic by right of conquest, it 
was merely because all they found was really not worth 
taking. The Batavians have stipulated in their treaty 
of alliance to have twelve ships of the line and eighteen 
frigates during this season ready for sea. They will probably 
not have half the number. At this moment there does 
not appear to be a single frigate or man of war fit for sea, 
and the British come and take prizes in full sight of the 
Texel itself. 

On the strength of their maritime supremacy the British 
government have revived their system of famishing their 
enemies into submission, and as they were unable to protect 
the Hollanders as friends, they have concluded to starve 
them too. All neutral vessels laden with provisions bound 
to France or Holland are to be captured by the British 
armed vessels and carried into their ports, the freights and 
cargoes to be paid. 

The policy of the British government seems to consider 
military operations as the least essential part of war. The 
pride, pomp and circumstance of their hostility consist not 
in the neighing steed, the shrill trump, the spirit stirring 
drum, the ear piercing fife, or the royal banner, but in 
forgery and famine. Their troops have been the terror 
of their friends and the derision of their enemies, but their 
artists are inimitable at counterfeiting an assignat, and 
their frigates and privateers are invincible against the mer- 
chant vessels of neutral nations. Trahit sua quamque 
voluptas : every man has his predilection for some particular 



376 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

species of glory. That of conquering by famine and forgery 
may have its charms too, and however destructive such a 
contest may be, the victory would at least have the ad- 
vantage of being bloodless. 

It is however at this time tolerably well ascertained that 
the system of starving will not be more successful this time 
than it has been heretofore. The scarcity of bread is un- 
doubtedly great in France and in this country too, but every 
other article of provision is in usual plenty. The season is 
said to be uncommonly promising, a considerable variety 
of vegetables which can serve to supply the place of bread 
have already reached their maturity, even in this northern 
climate, and every day from the present moment will add 
some new article to the stores. The usual period of the 
harvest is rapidly approaching, and the British government 
will once more be obliged to console themselves for the 
failure of their design by the consciousness of its efficacy. 
The mere intention to famish thirty millions of the human 
race is an eflfort that must carry its own reward along with it, 
and even its failure will be not much less glorious than 
would be its success. 

Since the conclusion of the treaty between the French and 
Batavian Republics nothing very material has taken place 
here. The same languor and imbecility which characterized 
the former government are equally discovered by the 
present : no vigor, no exertions, no public spirit, but abun- 
dance of commonplace about liberty, equality and the rights 
of man ; abundance of invective against the House of Orange 
and its partizans, abundance of patriotic exultation, together 
with frequent ebullitions of rage restrained and of revenge 
repressed but ready to burst forth In all Its violence against 
the rotten part of the nation, the slavish subalterns of their 
oppressors, that is against all the members of the former 



1795) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 377 

regencies. This spirit of turbulence is preserved and 
stimulated by the popular societies, as numerous and almost 
as mischievous here as they are elsewhere. The other day 
at Rotterdam, in consequence of some flaming resolves of 
the popular society there, a mob of several thousand people 
assembled together, went to the State House and demanded 
of the municipality to order all the members of the former 
Regency immediately under arrest. The municipality 
remonstrated, stating that the people were not legally 
assembled, that their demand was contrary to the rights of 
man, inasmuch as they had made no specific charge against 
the persons whose arrest they desired. To this grave and 
serious objection the only reply to the municipality was, 
that if they had any regard for their own lives, they must 
instantly comply with the wishes of the people, and they 
complied accordingly. The mob then chose a committee to 
come and demand of the Provincial Assembly the same 
measure of severity to be extended through the Province, 
The Assembly entered into a sort of negotiation with them, 
annulled the order that had been extorted from the munici- 
pality of Rotterdam, discharged the persons confined under 
it from arrest, excepting only the former high officer whose 
arrest is continued, because the people of Rotterdam appear to 
be very much irritated against him, and promise that they will 
pay all proper attention to the wishes of the people. The 
collection of well-disposed people (the name assumed by the 
irregular assembly,) are not satisfied with these measures, 
their secretary makes a formal protestation against them, 
and publishes it in the newspapers. The members of the 
municipality at Rotterdam, indignant at the violence to 
which they had been forced to yield, all resign and after- 
wards at the request of the Provincial Assembly consent to 
continue in office for the present. 



378 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

The character, the situation and temper of the Provincial 
Assembly of the municipalities in general, of the popular 
societies, and of the peuple patriate, are all displayed more 
clearly in this one transaction than could be done by a volume 
of description or argumentation. In the rulers you see 
moderation, a regard for good principles, and a sense of the 
duties annexed to their stations, but all subordinate to com- 
plaisance for the popular will, and still more to personal 
fear. In the popular societies and their emanations, the 
thirst for party vengeance, the want of confidence in the 
nominal rulers so lately the objects of their own choice, the 
contempt of all principles upon which political and civil 
liberty must be founded, and the defiance publicly pro- 
claimed of all the authorities which have so recently been 
created, are equally discernible. I have related this anecdote 
therefore as a specimen from which it may be judged what 
the present state of affairs here is. Many others might be 
told, bearing in a degree the same distinctive marks, and 
all would tend to the confirmation of the same conclusion. 
In the meantime the project of making a new Constitution 
is yet held forth, and the States General have lately sent 
to the Provincial Assemblies for their acceptance a plan for 
the convocation of a National Convention. This plan is 
considered as a thing of so little consequence, that it has not 
even been published in any of the French newspapers of the 
country. I have therefore made a translation of it from 
the Dutch for the Secretary of State, and send a copy of it 
also to you, because it is really an object of curiosity, and 
because I am glad to have an opportunity of showing you 
that I have not entirely neglected the language. 

I shall perhaps take another opportunity to communicate 
the observations which this plan suggests in relation to the 
state of public opinion upon the theory of government, but at 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 379 

present I must remember I am writing a letter and not a 
volume. 

I have at length received instructions, which relieve me 
from all embarrassment with respect to the conduct I have 
to hold in the changes which have been, and yet will be, 
taking place around me.^ Hitherto I have had no occasion to 

1 "The maxim of the President towards France has been to follow the govern- 
ment of the people. Whatsoever regimen a majority of them shall establish is, boik 
de facto and de jure, that to which our minister there addresses himself. If there- 
fore the independency of the United Netherlands continues, it is wished that you 
make no difficulty in passing from the old to any new constitution of the people. 
If the new rulers will accept your old powers and credentials, offer them. If they 
require others adapted to the new order of things, assure the proper authorities or in- 
dividuals that you will write for them, and doubt not that they will be expedited. 

" Should the United Netherlands become a dependence on the French Republic, 
your mission will of course be terminated by the extinction of the nation itself. 
But in this event you will continue on the ground until further instructions, taking 
care to communicate fully, and by quadruplicates, with this government. At the 
same time you will be as neutral as possible in your conduct and remarks and avoid 
offence to either side. Should anything be said to you on the French side urging 
some declaration from you, it will be enough to give assurances of our regard for the 
French Republic, and to express your confidence that as in your instructions the 
event could not have been foreseen, every accommodation will be made by your 
government for maintaining an harmonious intercourse with that Republic and its 
connections. 

" Should it be doubtful in whose hands [government] will be finally established, 
your prudence must prevent you from committing the government of the United 
States until you see your way clearly. You will be best able to judge whether under 
this, or any circumstances, you could not contrive an adequate pretext for retiring 
to some spot within the Seven Provinces or their dependencies, until you shall re- 
ceive an answer to your communications to this department. But such a retirement 
ought to be so managed as to have nothing of the air of design or of alienation 
from the existing rulers. It would be a delicate step, and would require to be 
thoroughly digested. The only end proposed by this suggestion is that you may 
shelter yourself from inconvenient importunities. 

" If amidst the inevitable convulsions personal danger be apprehended, no line can be 
chalked by us for your guidance, and your own judgement and discretion must decide. 
But without the most unequivocal necessity it is thought best that you should not 
quit the country until you shall be so instructed." From the Secretary of State, Feb- 
ruary 27, 1795. Ms. Words in italics were in cipher. 



38o THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

take any step that could cause particular remark, and If 
I have not made myself violent friends and admirers in the 
party, by subscribing to their clubs and joining In their 
processions, neither have I made myself obnoxious by any 
conduct or remarks that could be offensive to them. The 
other neutral Ministers and even the Portuguese have con- 
stantly remained here. I have found them all very polite 
obliging and friendly. 

I have the same acknowledgment to make with respect 
to the French Representatives and Generals who have been 
in this country. It is due to them all excepting Sieyes, who 
in the only conversation I had with him spoke of the govern- 
ment of the United States in a manner different from the 
others, and who was answered by me In a manner equally 
different from that I had used with the rest. I have related 
the conversation In a letter to the Secretary of State. 

I am, &c. 

TO ABIGAIL ADAMS 

The Hague, June 29, 1795. 



My friend, T. H. Perkins, who was here some time since, 
had already Informed me of the discomfiture the Jacobini- 
cal heroes had suffered in Boston, by the loss of Honestus's | 
election.^ 

His Chronicle printer,^ the Tom Tit twittering on this 
goose's back, cannot fight. It seems, his little wish to be 
malicious against me. He will not forgive me for having 
put some truth and justice into his paper. It was such a 

^ John Coffin Jones was elected and Benjamin Austin, Jr., defeated in the Sena- 
torial choice. 

^ The printers of the Independent Chronicle were Thomas Adams and Benjamin 
Larkin. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 381 

violence to the personal character of the man, and the politi- 
cal character of the print, as would have made him my 
enemy for ever, if he had dared to be the enemy of any man. 
The American minister neither went to England with the 
Stadtholder, nor remained at the Hague under the protection 
of General Pichegru. He remained at his post under the 
protection of the Laws of Nations ; that is, of certain usages 
and principles to the printer and editor of the Chronicle 
unknown, but which all civilized human beings hold in 
singular veneration, and which General Pichegru as well as 
the other French generals and representatives of the people 
who have been in this country, took particular pains to 
preserve inviolate. It did not once enter their minds that 
the minister of a neutral and friendly nation could be a 
subject of protection to them ; but they were anxiously 
solicitous that none of the rights annexed to the character 
should suffer the minutest injury from them, and strange 
as It may seem to the aforesaid printer and editor, they 
universally valued very highly the reputation of being scrupu- 
lously observant of the laws of nations. . . . 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, 27 July, 1795. 
My Dear Sir: 

The public affairs of the country where I now reside 
afford at this time but an indifferent topic of correspondence. 
In the general scale of Europe it is of so little comparative 
importance, that nothing less than a conquest or a revolu- 
tion can make its current events interesting enough to be 
an object of communication beyond the Atlantic. Both 
these great political changes have taken place since my arri- 
val here, both have been completed, and leave the nation 



382 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

in a state of dull tranquility that is equally barren for narra- 
tion and for observation. In my last letter was inclosed 
a translation of the plan proposed for calling a Convention. 
The subject has been discussed in the several Provincial 
Assemblies. That of Holland proposes to accept the plan 
with an amendment, whereby the National Convention shall 
be invested with all the powers of the whole Batavian people. 
That of Friesland objects against assembling a Convention 
at all, and proposes to remain In their present state of con- 
stitution. The reason of this difference Is that Holland is 
desirous of unity and indivisibility, and that Friesland pre- 
fers the federal union as it now stands. It is the differing 
interest that occasions this differing opinion, and it will not 
improbably be a source of long discord, for each of the parties 
attaches to its own opinion that obstinacy and bigotry that 
interest always communicates to political opinions. As to 
the construction of the intended convention, a single as- 
sembly without control, It Is considered on both sides as 
an immaterial circumstance, and they are entirely satisfied 
with the Idea that it will be a perfect imitation of the French 
Assembly. It is remarkable that they pride themselves upon 
this imitation at the very moment when the French Assembly 
proclaim their abandonment of the system, from a convic- 
tion of the manifold Injuries it has done them. 

It has been mentioned in a former letter that a Committee 
of eleven members of the French Convention had been ap- 
pointed to prepare what they called the organic laws for the 
Constitution. It was an expedient contrived by the party 
now dominant, to get rid entirely of the Constitution of 
1793, which had undergone the form of an acceptance by 
the people, but the character of which is too anarchical for 
the public opinion of this time, and which had the more 
unpardonable defect of having been made by the Jacobin 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 383 

party. The commission of eleven have therefore made their 
report.^ They propose another Constitution altogether 
different from that of 1793, and it is now under the discus- 
sion of the Assembly. The plan contains less of the wild- 
fire than was so liberally scattered through the other, and 
the article of the declaration of rights, which sanctifies the 
right of Insurrection, Is removed. The legislative body is 
to be divided, but the two houses are not invested with 
equal powers. The council of elders (that is the Senate,) 
will have no right to originate any laws, but only a negative 
upon those proposed by the council of five hundred or Repre- 
sentatives. The executive power is to consist of a Directory 
of five persons, appointed by the Legislature, without a 
negative upon the laws, and to be presided alternately by 
each of its members for three months at a time. You can 
easily judge without any further details whether this Con- 
stitution is likely to establish the reign of liberty in France, 
any more than those that have been already proposed or 
accepted. 2 The reporter of the Committee, Boissy d'Anglas, 
is a member who has rapidly risen to reputation since the 
fall of Robespierre, and Is at this time perhaps the most 
popular member of the Convention. His discourse which 
accompanied the report was received with great applause, 
and as it gives a good idea of the fashionable political doc- 
trines of the present day, I shall send you a copy of it. You 
will perceive that he quotes your authority In support of 
a divided legislature, but his very quotation shows that he 
knew as little of you as of your book. 

Whether the Constitution will be adopted or not, is very 
problematical ; whether It will ever be put Into execution, is 
much more so. The Convention itself labors under a great 

^ June 23. 

* The proposed measure is described in Cambridge Modern History, VIII. 392. 



384 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

load of unpopularity, being equally detested by the Jacobins 
and by the Royalists. Great numbers of the Moderates 
are said to be of this latter description. For several months 
past they have supported the Convention, only because they 
were afraid that its dissolution would restore the reign of the 
Jacobins ; but they grow stronger, or imagine so, from day 
to day, and they begin already to declare against the Conven- 
tion themselves. This disposition is so clearly manifested 
that another crisis may be soon expected, and the present 
appearance is, that It will produce a reconciliation and coali- 
tion between the Convention and the Jacobin party. The 
struggle will as usual end in a convulsion, and that will 
terminate in a Revolution, But whether it will be a renewal 
of the 31st of May,^ or a counterpart to the loth of August,^ 
it is Impossible at this distance to anticipate. 

As far as can be judged from the conversation of the 
French men that I meet with here, and from the accounts 
of observing persons who have recently been at Paris, the 
whole nation Is heartily tired of revolutions, sighing for 
peace and tranquility, but as little prepared for any system 
that shall procure It as they ever have been at any time. 
The Jacobin party Is numerous and powerful, though loaded 
with an immense weight of odium, and at this time really 
persecuted and oppressed. The Royalists, on the other 
hand, are the more formidable, because no man knows what 
their strength is ; for the course of their Revolutions has 
been so rapid, so violent and eccentric, that at one period 
or another political hypocrisy has been to some an asylum, 
to others a weapon, but practised by all, so that there is 
not a man perhaps in the Republic, who has not professed 
the most contradictory creeds at different periods. This 

* Insurrection of 12 Prairial, 1793. 

* 1792, the date of the attack on the Tuileries. 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 385 

dissimulation loses all its depravity in its universality and 
in the horrible necessity which occasioned it, but it has 
left an indelible impression ; it has annihilated all confidence 
between man and man, and introduced an universal distrust 
in its stead. The people in general and the Convention 
declare themselves equally hostile to both parties. The 
aversion against royalty is deeply rooted in the nation, and 
acquires a tenfold vigor from the dread of seeing its restora- 
tion, accompanied by the return and triumph of the emi- 
grants, whose property is the only pledge for the redemption 
of the national paper and for the recompense of the republi- 
can armies. In short there is no Revolution whatever but 
may be expected in that country, except one that shall 
give them peace and a regulated liberty. If in the most 
favorable circumstances the perfection of human legislation 
is scarcely adequate to the construction of a government, 
which may be at the same time strong to enforce the law 
and weak for any abuse of its power, it may without hesita- 
tion be pronounced impossible in France. I suppose the 
opinion is yet a political heresy, and like most other heresies 
it is an eternal truth. ^ 

At the present moment Paris is in a state of violent agi- 
tation, and the inveteracy of the parties discovers itself, as 
it always does, upon the most trivial occasions. The 
treaties and the Convention are the stages upon which it is 
discovered. You will have heard doubtless before this 

1 "But as to a free government, a government of laws, or any government other 
than that of opinion, that is of parties, it is not to be expected either in France 
or in this country. How many more years they will spend in making constitutions, 
I know not, but that they will never make a constitution and execute it is evident 
to every dispassionate observer. It is impossible to say how long an alchymist 
will hunt for the philosopher's stone without being discouraged; but those who 
imagine he will find it are blessed with a stronger built faith than has been allotted 
to me." To Abigail Adams, July 30, 1795. Ms. 

2C 



386 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

reaches you of a song called the Reveil du peuple. It has 
neither the poetical nor the musical merit of the Hymne des 
Marseillais, but it Is a bitter effusion against the Jacobins, 
the Terrorists, and the system of blood. It has therefore 
become a great favorite among the people of Paris, and at the 
same time the famous hymn has lost much of Its popularity. 
Within the last few weeks they have become real badges 
of party, and at the theatres the spectators have frequently 
refused to hear the Marseillaise, and have called constantly 
for the other. 

On the 14th of this month the National Convention cele- 
brated the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille. 
They had the Marseillaise hymn performed in their presence, 
and, Inspired by a moment of enthusiasm or by a settled 
policy, they joined with great ardor in the chorus. One of 
the members immediately proposed, and the assembly as 
Immediately decreed, that this hymn should be sung every 
morning by the guard that attends the Convention. The 
next day the guard was surrounded by a crowd of people 
who would not allow them to execute the decree, and they 
themselves refused to do it. The Convention without re- 
pealing their decree passed to the order of the day on being 
Informed that It was not complied with. At the theatre all 
the patriotic songs were excluded excepting only the Reveil 
du peuple. The Committees of Government prohibited 
the singing of any songs whatever upon the theatres other 
than those belonging to the plays performed. The actors 
obeyed, but the song was sung by the spectators themselves, 
not without manifestations of indignation against the Con- 
vention. 

In the mean time the rebellion in the Vendee has again 
assumed a formidable aspect, and four or five thousand 
emigrants from England have landed to join the Royalists 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 387 

in those Departments. They are said to be blocked up, 
however, in Quiberon, and a force so considerable is sent 
into that quarter, that the total extinction of the rebellion 
is promised, and expected very soon to be effected. 

The armies in Spain retain their superiority, but do not 
exert it to advance any further into the country. That of 
Italy, after a number of successive engagements during the 
ten last days of June, has abandoned its stations upon the 
river of Genoa ; but Kellermann tells his troops that they 
must not call it a retreat. The armies on the Rhine are still 
employed upon the siege of Mentz, and it is supposed they 
will soon attempt to cross the river. At sea there has been 
another naval engagement. In which France has lost three 
more ships of the line, besides a frigate In the Mediterranean. 
Their maritime war has Invariably been as disastrous as that 
by land has been successful. 

The German Diet have come to a formal conclusion to 
enter into negotiations with France under the mediation of 
the King of Prussia. This negotiation will certainly be 
protracted considerably, because the terms for which the 
parties are prepared differ so widely, that they cannot Imme- 
diately be brought together. 

The Russian fleet, stipulated by the late treaty with Great 
Britain to be sent into the North Sea, has arrived at Copen- 
hagen, and sailed again from thence. There are twelve 
ships of the line and eight frigates, and they have English 
pilots on board, who were sent to join them at Copenhagen. 

The British Government persist with a perseverance 
which nothing but the national hatred against France could 
support in the continuance of the war. To ruin totally the 
maritime power of their enemy Is their object, and they have 
been but too successful in effecting it. They purchase it 
however at a price sufficiently dear. The debt accumulates, 



388 THE WRITINGS OF [179S 

the people really suffer much by the war and are weary of It. 
The revolutionists are active, restless, indefatigable, and will 
finally centre all their efforts in one point which they con- 
sider as an inevitable step towards all the others that they 
have at heart. The sword of Damocles hangs over the head 
that wears the crown ; it is now protected only by a degree 
of personal consideration possessed by the wearer. But 
the apparent successor and his brothers are not only desti- 
tute of this shield, but are continually laying themselves 
open to attack and daily degrading themselves in the public 
opinion. Their defects to all appearance are irretrievable, 
for they proceed from weakness of character and debility 
of understanding. The combustible materials are collecting 
in such masses there that they cannot fail sooner or later to 
meet a spark that shall enkindle them, and the explosion of a 
Revolution will revenge the injuries of the human race. 

The prophecy of Rousseau, that the ancient monarchies 
of Europe cannot last much longer, becomes more and more 
infallible. Hereditary prerogatives and hereditary privi- 
leges are In their own nature invidious and odious to those 
excluded from them. They have been maintained only by 
long and undisputed establishment. From the moment 
when the great mass of the nations in Europe were taught 
to inquire, why is this or that man possessed of such or such 
an enjoyment at our expense, and of which we are deprived, 
the signal was given of a civil war In the social arrangement 
of Europe, which cannot finish but with the total ruin of their 
feudal constitutions. The opinions upon the theory of 
government are wild, discordant and absurd, but the republi- 
can spirit Is diffused everywhere. The essence of all the 
republicanism to be met with consists in aversion to the 
principle of inheritance. But this aversion is most exten- 
sively propagated ; it is profound and inveterate. It must 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 389 

eventually lead to the destruction of the relics which yet 
remain of the feudal aristocracy. Whether the arts, the 
sciences and the civilization of Europe will not all perish 
with it, must yet remain a problem. If the experience of 
France gives an argument for analogy, nothing but the return 
of barbarism is to be expected. The French revolutions of 
the last six years have contributed more to the restoration 
of Vandalic ignorance, than whole centuries can retrieve, and 
their progress has given an alarming proof of what would 
have been deemed a frantic delirium, had it been predicted. 
It is that the arts and sciences themselves, that genius, 
talents, and learning, are in the most enlightened periods 
of the human history liable to become objects of proscription 
to political fanaticism. The myrmidons of Robespierre were 
as ready to burn libraries as the followers of Omar; and if 
the principle is finally to prevail, which puts the scepter of 
sovereignty into the hands of the European Sans Culottes, 
they will soon reduce everything to the level of their own 
ignorance. 

In this country the revolutionary principles have indeed 
made but little progress. The mass of the people is attached 
as much as ever, perhaps more, to their old constitution, or 
rather to the House of Orange. The caresses of the new 
administration have made few converts among the troops, 
who desert and quit the service in such numbers that the 
national army will be reduced to nothing. There is so 
little dependence placed upon the Swiss, that the States 
General have determined to disband them. An army of 
twenty-five thousand Frenchmen is to be employed in the 
pay of this Republic instead of that which is melting away 
before the Revolution. The patriotic party is divided, one 
assembly springs up in opposition to another, club thunders 
against club, and the confusion of Babel would soon be 



390 



THE WRITINGS OF [179s 



followed by the dispersion of the builders, but for the influ- 
ence and control of their new allies, whose armies are pledged 
for the maintenance of the public tranquility. 

By the last vessel that went from Rotterdam to Boston I 
sent you the work of Martens and the Politique des Cabinets 
de r Europe, which contains a memoire of Mr. Turgot during 
his ministry, very deserving of an American's attention. By 
the present opportunity I send several new publications 
lately received from Paris. They discover in some degree 
the state of the public mind, and furnish materials for the 
history of a philosophical revolution. The man that can 
read them and retain an ardor for revolutions must indeed 
possess more philosophy than humanity.^ 

I am, &c. 

TO SYLVANUS BOURNE 

The Hague, August 15, 1795. 
• •••••• 

The object of the consular office is the benefit of merchants 
and mariners in countries other than their own ; it is to 
procure facilities and conveniences for them that this insti- 
tution is appropriated. The legislature will therefore 
necessarily consult their feelings and opinions, and I am 
afraid that they would consider consular powers rather as a 
burden upon them than as an advantage to them. The 
spirit of commerce is averse to every species of restraint, 

1 "The character of the American people is so universally and essentially republi- 
can; civil and political liberty is a possession so thoroughly incorporated in the 
existence of every individual, that I cannot believe, and never have believed the 
aristocratic faction, which has been the theme of so much newspaper declamation 
among us, to be any thing else than one of the loci communes of men who were 
anxious to obtain the favor of their fellow citizens, by affecting an extraordinary 
anxiety for their welfare." To N. Freeman, August i, 1795. Ms. 



X79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 391 

and it would probably consider in that light every power of 
any utility that could be given to a consul. 

An increase of emoluments would meet with the same 
opposition. The system of economy in all public expenses 
is in general carried further with us than an enlightened 
interest would advise, and a generous compensation will not 
readily be obtained for the services of an office, which in 
the minds of our countrymen is of questionable utility. 

The consular appointments of the government have in 
several instances been unpopular, but the difficulty of filling 
every place well would not disappear by an augmentation 
of powers or of compensation. It would even be increased 
in proportion to them, upon the natural principle that the 
character of the officer should be confidential in proportion 
to the magnitude of the trust. To make the office an object 
of acceptance to American citizens qualified to fill it well, 
must be made very expensive, for there are many European 
ports where there is a great commerce with the United States, 
and where no American citizen qualified for such a station 
resides. In all such places, if the principle that a consul 
must be a citizen is established, the office alone must be 
made an inducement for a respectable American citizen to 
leave his country, and every thing that is precious and valu- 
able annexed to that name, in order to fill it, or there must 
be no consul at the place. 

The misfortune in this case is that almost all the argu- 
ments that can apply to the subject are two edged swords, 
that may be used on both sides of the question : for instance 
all the examples of misconduct mentioned in your letter 
might be adduced as reasons for not augmenting the authority 
or profits of the office. Your argument stands thus : some 
of the consuls betray their trust ; therefore increase the im- 
portance of the office and appoint men who will not betray 



392 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

the trust. But the opposite arguments : some of the con- 
suls betray their trust; you cannot get confidential men 
for the office without incurring a heavier expense than the 
public utility of their services in it will warrant; therefore 
do not make the office more important. If the powers 
already given are abused, do not give others, the abuse 
of which would be more pernicious. If the trifling compensa- 
tion now given is yet undeserved, be careful not to increase 
it. . . . 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 1 
No. [Edmund Randolph] 

The Hague, August 20, 1795. 
Dear Sir: 

From the present situation of the nations of Europe, and 
from reflections to which my own experience as well as that 
of others has given occasion, it has occurred to me, that 
some advantage would be derived from the establishment 
of some general rules and principles by the government of 
the United States, to serve as directions to their agents, 
with respect to the delivery of passports, or any other papers, 
tending to procure in behalf of the persons to whom they were 
given, the enjoyment of advantages attending the charac- 
ter of an American citizen. 

In many parts of Europe at this time a passport is a paper 
of indispensable necessity to every traveller, and indeed to 
every individual in a country other than his own. Among 
the Americans, who are at this time in great numbers in 
different parts of Europe, some few have taken the precau- 
tion to provide themselves with passports from the Depart- 

^ Randolph retired from the office of Secretary of State, August 20, and Pickering 
was acting Secretary until December 10, when he received a commission as Secretary. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 393 

mcnt of State ; but the far greater number come from home 
without any, and of course apply for them to the Ministers 
or other agents of the United States, in the countries where 
they respectively are, when they find the need of such a 
paper. It happens not unfrequently under these circum- 
stances, that a real citizen of the United States and fully 
entitled to their protection, appears to demand a passport, 
without having any such proof of his citizenship, as the rigor 
of all judicial tribunals would require as evidence of facts. 
At the same time there are great numbers of impostors who 
often endeavor fraudulently to obtain passports as Americans. 
The inattention, which is common with those of the first 
class, facilitates the success of the others, and where the 
delivery of passports is left entirely to the discretion of every 
individual agent, there must be danger that the protection 
of the United States will be extended where it is not due, 
or denied where it is. 

The special evidence of citizenship required by some of 
the consuls, is a certificate from the proper office in any one 
of the United States. This is a species of evidence so custom- 
ary and apparently so substantial, that in the present 
state of things it cannot reasonably be rejected as incompe- 
tent to authorize the demand of a passport. But in truth 
it is a species of evidence often possessed by persons who have 
very little claim to the protection of the United States, be- 
sides its being liable to pass into hands that have no right 
to it at all. 

There is many an European who, having resided a year or 
two in some one of the United States, and having been 
naturalized for his personal convenience, has returned to 
Europe with his certificate in his pocket, which he now 
employs to claim all the privileges of the American name. 
In conformity to the universal practise, I have thought 



394 THE WRITINGS OF [179S 

myself not at liberty to refuse passports to naturalized 
citizens ; but it has appeared to me that when an adopted 
member of any political association ceases to bear any 
portion of its burthens, he cannot in reason and justice 
claim its correlative protection. The late naturalization 
law will, however, reform the tendency to such abuses in 
future.^ 

The flag of the United States is liable to the same misuse 
with the character of citizen, and owing to the same reasons. 
The advantages of a neutral flag, insulted and abused as it 
has been, and still Is, are however so great that every expedi- 
ent has been used to procure it for many vessels that have 
never been out of the European seas. The consuls have 
been applied to for papers to serve as substitutes to those 
which belong to vessels of the United States, and some of 
them have accordingly delivered papers more or less Irregu- 
lar. It has been observed to me repeatedly by Europeans, 
that the American flag is often worn by vessels having no 
right to It, and It has been a subject of complaint from several 
Americans, whose fair trade is injured by this unauthorized 
participation. In one of the instances mentioned In my 
last letter, the captain of an English built vessel assumed the 
flag of the United States without any papers whatever, and 
upon the sole ground that he was himself an American 
citizen. 2 It is not supposed that the mere personal title 
of the captain can authorize the employment of the Ameri- 
can colors. Whether any papers that can be delivered by a 
consul have more efficacy to communicate the right, is at 
least questionable ; but if consular papers are understood 
to have a validity for this effect. It would perhaps be useful 

1 Law of January 29, 1795, Statutes at Large, I. 414. 

2 Charles Cowing, whose arrest came to the notice of Adams through Joshua 
Barney, then in command of a French ship of the line. 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 395 

that their discretion should be guided in the delivery of 
them by the instructions of the government. 

Such instructions may possibly be especially necessary 
to those consuls of the United States who are themselves 
foreigners, and from their particular situations and interests, 
may be more susceptible of giving an extension rather too 
liberal to the participation of privileges that belong prop- 
erly to Americans or citizens of a neutral nation. 

The consuls with whom I have been in regular correspond- 
ence make repeated complaints of the footing of the con- 
sular establishment at present. They are of opinion that 
the powers and emoluments annexed to the office are equally 
incompetent. The representations of Mr. Delius ^ have 
heretofore been transmitted to your department, and I 
understand from Mr. Bourne that he has more than once 
written to you upon the subject himself. 

The relative situation of the United States towards the 
nations of Europe since the commencement of the present 
maritime war is new, and Its state of neutrality naturally 
occasions a variety of combinations, which may deserve 
the attention of the government In a greater degree than 
their intrinsic Importance could claim. The misuse of the 
flag, the juggling of a passport, or even the occasional Irregu- 
lar employment of official means for the furtherance of 
foreign commercial speculations, may be In every single 
instance of minor Importance ; but when the examples are 
frequently repeated, when they may be attended with 
consequences Involving more or less the national interest, 
and when they result from a state of things which, although 
temporary, will perhaps be frequently renewed, It Is viewed 
as an obligation of duty to those within whose observation 
such facts are placed to give notice of them. 

' Arnold Delius, of Bremen. 



396 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

With respect to passports, it might be of public utility that 
the American agents be instructed to deliver them In such 
cases as the government may think proper to prescribe, 
and upon the previous production of some special evidence 
in support of the demand. But in order to avoid an un- 
favorable operation of any such regulation upon many real 
American citizens, they must be in general aware of the 
importance to their own interest, that they should always 
take passports, or at least the evidence upon which they 
may be entitled to demand them, before they sail from the 
United States. Upon the subject of the flag, some sort of 
directions particular to those consuls or agents who are not 
citizens of the United States, may prevent the repetition of 
abuses which have taken place. ^ 

I have the honor, &c. 



LETTER OF CREDENCE 

To OUR Great and Good Friend His Britannic Majesty 

Great and Good Friend. 

To testify to your Majesty the sincerity of the government of 
the United States in its negotiations, I have transmitted to John 
Quincy Adams, Minister Resident of the United States of America 
at the Hague, the Ratification of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce 
and Navigation, concluded and signed on the 19th day of Novem- 
ber, 1794, by the Plenipotentiaries of your Majesty and of the 
United States : and the said John Quincy Adams is instructed to 
take the necessary measures for the exchange of the Ratifications. 
I beseech your Majesty, therefore, to give full credence to whatever 
he shall say to you, on the part of the United States, concerning the 
same; and to receive the said Ratification in the name of, and 
on the part of, the United States of America, when it shall be 

^ See Writings of James Monroe, II. 320. 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 397 

tendered by him. I pray God to have your Majesty in his holy 
keeping. 

Written at Philadelphia this 25th day of August in the year of 
our Lord 1795. 

(Signed) Geo. Washington. 

By the special command of the President of the United States. 

(Signed) Timothy Pickering, 
at this time executing the office of Secretary of State. 

INSTRUCTIONS 

Department of State, August 25, 1795. 

Separate instructions for Mr. Adams, relative to the exchange of 
ratifications, which Mr. Deas will be directed to execute, if 
IVIr. Adams does not go over before the 20th Day of October, 

1795- 
Sir, 

The first part of the business, for which you are called to London 
by my letter of the 14 instant, is the exchange of ratifications 
of the late treaty between the United States and Great Britain. 

The documents, now transmitted, as relating thereto, are i, a 
copy of that letter ; 2, a printed but authentic copy of the treaty 
and resolution of the Senate advising the ratification; 3, a copy 
of the memorial from the Department of State to the British min- 
ister plenipotentiary near the United States ; and 4, a letter from 
the President to his Britannic majesty, indicating the functions, 
which you are destined to fulfil. 

At the earliest possible moment after your arrival in London, 
you will communicate to the proper persons belonging to the 
British ministry, your mission, as stated in the memorial ; and 
request that the conferences necessary to its conclusion, may be 
expedited. 

When you shall come into conference, you will declare, that you 
are possessed of the ratification, as it was promised in the memo- 
rial ; but that you are instructed to inquire into the existence of a 



398 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

late order, said to be issued under the authority of his Britannic 
majesty, for the seizure of the provision vessels, even of neutral 
nations.^ If the order does not exist, or existing does not op- 
erate on the vessels of the United States, you will proceed to 
accomplish the exchange of ratifications, as is hereinafter men- 
tioned. If the order does exist, and does operate on the vessels of 
the United States, you will make such representations, as that order 
shall suggest relative to the interests and situation of the United 
States ; to the end that it may be removed ; and particularly, 
that the ratification of the President must not be construed into 
an admission of the legality of the said order. Minute instructions 
cannot now be given, concerning that order, as our accounts of it 
are very imperfect. But if after every prudent effort, you find 
that it cannot be removed, its continuance is not to be an obstacle 
to the exchange of ratifications. 

When, therefore, these preliminaries as to the order shall be 
finished, you will produce the President's ratification ; and offer to 
exchange the same, in behalf of the United States, for an equivalent 
ratification on the part of his Britannic majesty ; that is, for a 
ratification, corresponding with the advice and consent of the 
Senate. 

The negotiations to be made after the exchange of ratifications 
will be marked out in other instructions. 

If on the part of the British King a ratification shall be exchanged, 
conformably with that of the President ; then you will immediately 
dispatch, by the most expeditious and safe conveyances, three 
copies of the British ratification, addressed to this Department. 
For the attainment of expedition and safety, you will be at liberty 
to incur a reasonable expense. Congress will meet on the first 
Monday in December next, and it is therefore desireable that the 
British ratification should be here early enough for the taking 
of certain necessary steps, concerning the treaty before that time. 

* This order in council was issued in April, 1795, but the text was not published. 
It was soon after revoked, and compensation made for seizures under it was ob- 
tained under Article VII of the Jay treaty. 



1795) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 399 

You will also, in the event of an exchange of ratifications, urge 
that orders be immediately given for the execution of the second 
article, respecting the evacuation of the posts, and for the proper 
measures, which are thereby provided to be taken by concert 
between the government of the United States and the British 
Governor General in America for settling the previous arrange- 
ments, which may be necessary, respecting the delivery of the said 
posts. 

The agreement which is to be made in pursuance of the 8th 
article, respecting the pay of commissioners, will also be attended 
to. In the fixing of the quantum, you will observe due economy. 
Mr. Hammond has intimated £1500 sterling per annum to each; 
except the commissioners for determining the river St Croix, for 
whom £1000 per annum was proposed. Beyond these sums you 
are not to go, and you will endeavor to reduce them as low as 
propriety will admit. 

If his Britannic majesty shall refuse to ratify on the condition 
required by the Senate, you will say, that being possessed of only 
one form of ratification, you will without delay forward to the 
President his said majesty's determination ; and will wait without 
taking a definite step, until you shall receive further orders. In 
this case you will perceive the importance of the information to us ; 
and that it will be necessary, unless you have at least two im- 
mediate opportunities, to hire an advice boat to bring the intelli- 
gence to Philadelphia, or to some port, near at hand. 

If Mr. Pinckney should unexpectedly return to London before 
this part of the business is finished, you will place it in his hands 
(he being the ordinary minister, and having co-operated in the 
negotiation) ; unless, indeed, it shall appear to Mr. Pinckney 
unadviseable for him to enter into it. By the special command of 
the President. 

Timothy Pickering, 

at this time executing the office of Secretary of State. 



400 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, August 31, 1795. 
My Dear Sir : 

The total defeat of the emigrants who had effected a 
descent In Britanny, as mentioned in my last letter, and the 
peace between France and Spain, signed at Basle on the 22nd 
of July, and since ratified by both parties, are events of 
such consequence that they will be fully known in America 
before this letter can reach you. It is scarcely possible 
that any interesting intelligence should be first conveyed 
from hence to America. The local position of the country 
forbids it, and although I have constantly taken all possible 
pains to communicate the most recent news, as far as I can 
conjecture from the dates when I presume my letters 
have been received, I must conclude that In general they 
have only been corroborative of accounts contained in news- 
papers already out of date. 

A circumstance which upon the brilliant theories of human 
perfectibility ought to be considered as much more Important 
than either of the former, is the adoption by the Convention 
of the Constitution lately proposed by the Committee of 
Eleven. Several considerable alterations have been the re- 
sult of a discussion which has lasted nearly two months, but 
the division of the legislative body into two Councils, and 
the attribution of the executive power to a third assembly of 
five persons with the title of Directory, are retained. The 
people and the armies are still to pronounce upon the whole 
plan, and then nothing will remain but to destroy it by 
another revolution, which will probably take place In less 
than a thousand years. 

It is worth remarking that in the midst of the deliberations 
upon this democratic constitution (for they still give It 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 401 

that epithet without any scruples,) the Great Sieyes, as one 
of my honest Dutch friends calls him, came out with another 
democratic Constitution, upon a plan entirely new and en- 
tirely his own. This prodigy of genius consisted in the 
Invention of three or four new words, and In a sort of amal- 
gamation of the system proposed by the Committee of 
eleven, with an institution similar to that of the Parlia- 
ments under the ancien regime. His legislature was to be 
merely a judicial tribunal, whose functions should be to 
decide between a petitioning assembly and a government. 
But as three assemblies were not enough for him, he pro- 
posed a fourth, whose sole functions should be to make such 
alterations as from time to time should be found necessary 
In the existing Constitution. The great Sieyes applauds 
himself and congratulates his country for having originated 
the luminous idea of this Institution, and Indeed some 
persons are of opinion that this Assembly would be more 
constantly busy than any of the others. The Convention, 
however, unanimously rejected the plan, and Sieyes the 
great has doubtless put it back Into his porte-feuille, to be 
used upon the next occasion that shall offer for making a 
democratic constitution for France. 

He did not, however, suffer the occasion to pass by without 
repeating the elegant pleasantry of Franklin, of MIrabeau, 
and of Condorcet, upon the system of balances. Upon this 
subject, together with an abundance of witticisms from the 
very refuse of commonplace, he advanced several things, 
for which it is Impossible to say whether the credit is to 
be given partly to his ignorance, or whether it is all due to 
deliberate intention and a philosophical disregard for truth. 

He said for instance that the idea of separating the Constit- 
uent authority from that of the ordinary legislative power 
originated In France, that It was a glorious discovery for 

2D 



402 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

which all the credit was due to the French nation, and 
that it was made in the year 1789. 

In his past-vamp'd-future-old-reviv'd-new piece of decla- 
mation against the balancing system, he says : 

I shall not insist upon the example of England, because the 
hereditary stain that is annexed to the system there, is a defect 
not essential to the system itself and cannot fairly be charged to it, 
but only examine what the practical effect of the system is every- 
where else where it is established. The double legislature Is, as has 
been said, like two horses pulling the chariot In opposite directions. 
With all their pulling the chariot moves not an inch, until the 
royal coachman mounts the box. Now you do not chuse to have 
a royal coachman. Wherever this system prevails the legislative 
assemblies are mere formal shadows, and the real legislator Is 
the executive power. 

These opinions, or pretended opinions, thus expressed, 
appear to me very remarkable, and they are the more so 
because they come from a man, who seems to affect the 
government of the earth, who has In fact that of France 
In a great degree, and who possesses all the qualities by 
which the late Roman historian says that Augustus was 
conducted to that of the world. 

The primary Assemblies who are to decide upon the Con- 
stitution are to be convoked on the 6th of next month, 
and the Constitutional Legislature is to be elected immedi- 
ately after. The precipitation with which the business is 
conducted Is grounded upon the necessity they are under 
to leave no time for the formation of cabals against the 
acceptance. There Is another measure which cannot easily 
be reconciled with the Constitutional theory, but which 
may be legitimated by the omnipotent argument of necessity. 
At the first election for the Constitutional Legislature the 
choice of the people Is not to have an unlimited liberty. 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 403 

Five hundred members of the present Convention must be 
chosen, or rather the Assembly has decreed that It will change 
itself into a Constitutional Legislature, one-third of the 
numbers of which are to be rechosen, or changed, by a new 
election. They are afraid of the consequences that would 
result at the present moment from an appeal to the voice of 
the people, without prescribing two-thirds of what that 
voice must answer.^ 

Upon the same principle at one of the last sessions of 
the Convention they dissolved at one stroke all the popular 
societies throughout the Republic. Their books and papers 
are ordered to be delivered up to the respective munici- 
palities, and the halls of their assembly are to be shut up 
forever. Such Is the present system. The popular societies 
have been the most efficacious of all the instruments em- 
ployed by the tyranny under which France has recently 
suffered, and they are formally proscribed by the proposed 
constitution. But they appear not less than Archangel 
ruined, and are still extremely formidable.^ 

^The decrees of Fructidor 5 and 13, which led to the overthrow of this Consti- 
tution of 1795. 

2 "It is not surprising that the French government should so openly discounte- 
nance these Societies in this country, because, independent of the numerous evils, 
which their own experience has convinced them to be the result of such institutions, 
they perhaps expect to find from that quarter the greatest impediments to the 
species of influence which they intend to possess and use in the concerns of this 
republic. The clubs are restless and unmanageable, and being spread all over the 
country, would be much more unwieldy as objects of direction, than authorities 
legally constituted, and assembled in one spot. Nor is it an unreasonable conjec- 
ture, that in the progress of these institutions, a coalition between those of France 
and of the Low Countries for their mutual support may be attempted; and that 
it may be considered as very formidable to the French government. On the other 
hand, the complacency of the legal assemblies here towards the same clubs, and 
even the parade of eulogium they bestow on them, is not less accountable; it is 
founded upon the consciousness that the clubs internally have all the powers of the 
people in their hands, and that the legislative bodies have no support, other than 
that of the French troops." To the Secretary of State, July 25, 1795. Ms. 



404 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

But the victory of the party called Moderates over that 
of the Jacobins is so nearly complete, that it has already 
divided itself into two parties, who are upon terms of mu- 
tual opposition, and may very soon be at open war. They 
consist on one side of the fragments of the Brissotine 
party, and on the other of the persons who contrived and 
executed the catastrophe of Robespierre, and who on that 
account are called the Thermidorian party. The present 
subjects of difference between them appear to be the different 
degrees of extension that they are disposed to give to the 
reaction of the Revolution. The Brissotines are the strongest 
in the Convention, but the other party seems to coincide 
more with the present temper of the popular opinion. 
The renewal of the legislative Assembly in two houses, and 
the supposed transition from a Revolutionary to a constitu- 
tional government, will undoubtedly be a critical moment, 
and will produce new political phenomena for observation. 

They suppose in Paris that their peace with Spain will 
produce of necessity a rupture between the latter and Great 
Britain, as the cession of the Spanish part of St. Domingo is 
contrary to the Treaty of Utrecht, which will furnish a 
pretext, and the defenceless opulence of the Spanish com- 
merce will give a motive to the British ministry. It seems 
as if no calculation can be too extravagant for the desperation 
of that government, but I have as yet no faith in their making 
war against Spain for the present, though there is no doubt 
but it is wished at Paris they may. 

They are also dissatisfied with the treaty between Great 
Britain and the United States, as I wrote you more than 
three months since that they would be, whatever the con- 
tents of the treaty might be. At that time they did not 
blush to say that to be upon bad terms with Britain was 
an obligation of gratitude Incumbent upon the United States ; 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 405 

and at present they are displeased with the articles because 
they are so with the treaty itself. 

What effects their influence will produce in America I 
know not. But that it will work with all its power, I am 
very certain. I have reason to suppose, however, that they 
think their two last Ministers in the United States have 
spent them too much money there, and the principal reason 
for which they recalled the last was the expense of his bad 
bargains, which have hitherto procured them nothing but 
grain and flour. Their new Minister's instructions will 
doubtless oblige him to greater economy. I know not 
whether they will lose their influence on that account. 

The present war is at this time nothing more In reality than 
a contest of national rivalship between France and Britain. 
The Interest of all the maritime nations is opposed to the 
success of the latter, and the French naval power has suffered 
such heavy losses, and is so much reduced, that they can 
henceforth have no hopes of being able to resist that of their 
enemy, but by uniting all the maritime force In Europe with 
their own against it. They are also desirous that the United 
States should be engaged on their side, for the benefit of an 
assistance negative in its nature, as Britain would be de- 
prived of the great and growing profit of her commerce 
with us in the case of a war. The system of neutrality 
which has been pursued with so much firmness and per- 
severance by the United States has never been perfectly 
relished by the French governing men. It becomes more 
and more unpleasant to them in proportion as the necessity 
of peace is felt more forcibly by themselves, and the policy 
employed by them for effecting their purpose is to attack 
the President of the United States. This has been, I am 
fully convinced, the real system from the time when Genet 
was sent, and It will be pursued with more or less consistency 



4o6 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

until they succeed in drawing us into a war, or until they 
shall be at peace. The art of destroying reputations, if it 
had not always been well understood in France, might have 
attained a considerable degree of perfection merely by the 
experience of their last years. It has been practised with 
such universal success among themselves, by all their 
parties and under all their changes, that it is reduced to a 
regular system, the operation of which is merely mechanical. 

The affairs of this country though intimately connected 
with those of France bear an aspect entirely different. The 
popular societies which are altogether proscribed in that 
Republic are very powerful here. There is now in session 
at this place an assembly styling itself a central club, con- 
sisting of deputies from most of the clubs throughout the 
Province; there are others of the same kind in the other 
Provinces. The great object of their pursuit is the disso- 
lution of the Provincial government, and the assembling 
of a National Convention for the whole people. This 
plan is extremely popular in this Province ; it has met how- 
ever with strenuous opposition from five of the others, but 
will finally prevail by the means of the popular societies. 

In the meantime they are under a constant apprehension of 
being invaded on the part of Prussia. They have an 
army of twenty-five thousand French troops for their de- 
fence, but a great proportion of their own army has deserted. 

They have at length made their appearance with their 
naval armament, and by the junction of all the forces they 
could muster they were two or three days at sea with six 
or eight ships of the line and as many frigates. But the 
condition of the ships was such that they could scarcely 
keep above water, and upon the first suspicion of the ap- 
proach of the British and Russian fleet they returned to 
the Texel, where they now remain. They have recently 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 407 

had one frigate taken after a severe action against superior 
force. 

Their commerce in the meantime is a mere passive victim 
to the British force at sea, and their East India Company is 
losing all their ships one after the other, without being 
able to lift a hand for their protection. 

The public treasury is empty. They have to pay between 
one and two hundred millions of florins for arrearages, the 
remainder of an hundred millions for the friendship of France, 
and the heavy expenses which daily accrue from their state 
of war, besides those to which they are at all times subjected.^ 

The plate of every individual has already been required 
for the public exigencies and delivered. A dry tax of six per 
cent upon all capitals is to be paid before the end of the year, 
and will be far from supplying the monies that are immedi- 
ately wanted. The scarcity of provisions has been great, 
but much exaggerated ; there have not been the symptoms 
of a famine, and the harvest now gathering is uncommonly 
favorable. 

The scarcity has been also great in England. It is in- 
conceivable how the government of that country retain all 
their force, and how the price of their funds is supported 
in the midst of their losses and defeats. Their naval success 
and the force of national antipathy are the only things that 
can account for it. They have not as yet discovered any 
intention whatever to negotiate with France, though it is 
pretended that a division has taken place In the Privy Council 

* "The French assignats have never had a compulsive circulation here except 
in a very limited degree, and for the necessary supply of the French troops. Since 
the treaty of alliance, and since the French army in this country is engaged in the 
pay of this government, the assignats have no other course than as merchandize, 
and their price current is contained in the commercial paper enclosed ; they are now 
at about forty-five for one." To the Secretary of the Treasury, September 8, 
1795. Ms. 



4o8 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

upon the subject. They are perhaps yet waiting for the 
result of new revolutions, which they expect will happen in 
France ; but they will probably find themselves deceived 
in their hopes arising from that source. The campaign 
of this year will probably be productive of scarce any 
important effect, and it is very certain that no country can 
support long a war with an annual expense of twenty-four 
million sterling to keep a status quo. In short the true state 
of facts appears to be, that France and Britain are both 
reduced to the greatest extremity, and that at present they 
both persist in war from the sole hope that the enemy will 
first yield to their pressure of misery. Such Is the usual 
issue of war. 
I am, &c. 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, September 12, 1795. 
My Dear Sir : 

I received two days ago your letter from New York of 
June 29. It gratified my highest ambition, as it testifies 
the approbation of the President and the Secretaries upon 
my conduct and correspondence, and my strongest affections, 
as It informed me of the health of my dearest friends.^ 

*"I have no language to express to you the pleasure I have received from the 
satisfaction you have given to the President and Secretary of State, as well as from 
the clear, comprehensive and masterly accounts in your letters to me of the public 
affairs of nations in Europe, whose situation and politics it most concerns us to 
know. Go on, my dear son, and by a diligent exertion of your genius and abilities, 
continue to deserve well of your father, but especially of your country. The more 
faithfully you have discharged and fulfilled your duty to me, the more anxious I 
have been lest I may not have fulfilled mine to you with so much punctuality." John 
Adams to John Quincy Adams, Quincy, April 26, 1795, Ms. Four of the letters 
were sent to President Washington, who wrote to John Adams, August 20, 1795 : 
"They contain a great deal of interesting matter, and No. 9 [May 22] discloses 
much important information and political insight. Mr. J. Adams, your son, must 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 409 

At the same time I received a letter from my brother 
Charles, and papers with accounts of popular movements 
in opposition to the treaty, which give me great anxiety. 
They were not Indeed unexpected to me, because I have 
long since been satisfied that the most powerful engines of 
influence among us would be set at work upon this occasion. 
My letters from the month of May to this time will give you 
my opinions and conjectures on the subject ; they are cor- 
roborated by the accounts that we now receive from America, 
and they give me great solicitude, as they renew the danger 
of war, which I had hopes was blown over for the present. 
It is a danger so much the more formidable, because I be- 
lieve the intention is to draw the United States into it, 
merely to make tools of them, in order to procure advan- 
; tageous terms for others, who would leave us in the well, 
■ after using our weight to get themselves out of it. It would 
be a war in which we should have everything to lose and 
nothing to gain ; a war commenced against the will of al- 
most the whole people, and which therefore under such a 
government as ours could not be carried on with success. 
The chain of consequences which present themselves to 
my mind as inevitable from such a source can afford but a 
wretched contemplation, and my greatest hopes of a more 
favorable futurity arise from firmness and resolution of the 
government. 

The conduct of the British government is so well adapted 
to increasing our danger of war, that I cannot but suppose 
they are secretly Inclined to produce it. An American can- 
not know, without seeing Europe to witness the fact, with 

not think of retiring from the walk he is in. His prospects, if he continues in it are 
fair, and I shall be much mistaken if, in as short a period as can well be expected, 
he is not found at the head of the diplomatic corps, let the government be admin- 
istered by whomsoever the people may choose." Ms. 



4IO THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

what pleasure and exultation all the partizans of monarchy 
receive accounts of any popular commotions in America. 
The insurrection of the last summer was a delicious feast 
for them,^ and they did not fail to make the most liberal use 
of it ; they will undoubtedly do the same upon this occasion. 
They are all inimical to the government of the United States, 
because it furnishes a constant example to those who main- 
tain the superior excellence of a Republican system. They 
wish to see some proof of extravagance or folly in America, 
which they can have the pleasure of attributing to the prev- 
alence of republicanism, as they have done very success- 
fully with respect to the frenzies of France. 

As to the treaty itself, the objection to the condition of 
the twelfth article appears to be well grounded ; it was not 
in the plan which was shown to me when I was in London, 
and of which I wrote you from thence, and I should have 
been surprised had it been submitted to on any account 
whatever. But in every other respect it still appears to me 
as it did at that time preferable to a war. I will even add 
at present, that it is in my mind preferable to no agreement 
at all, upon the principal subjects to which it refers. ^ But 
when people among us talk of Britain's being at her last 
gasp, and of her being totally ruined if the United States 
should fall upon her, we can but hope for the credit of the 

^The "Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794. 

^ Jay believed that this article, relating to trade with the West Indies, broke the 
ice, "that is, it breaks in upon the [English] navigation act. The least stream from 
a mass of water passing through a bank will enlarge its passage. The very article 
stipulates that the arrangements to succeed it shall have in view the further ex- 
tension of commerce." Jay to Washington, March 6, 1795. Correspondence and 
Public Papers of John Jay, IV. 170. Hamilton ("Camillus") considered that the 
Senate wisely regarded the article as "less liberal" than could with reason be ex- 
pected. Works, V. 161. Objection was made to the proposal to prohibit the 
transportation in American vessels to any foreign country except Great Britain, 
of sugar, cotton, coffee, or molasses. The article was suspended by the Senate. 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 411 

speaker, that his assertion is only unfounded and the result 
of ignorance. 

The force of Great Britain is so far from being exhausted, 
that her maritime power was never at any period so great 
as it is at present. Her naval superiority is everywhere so 
indisputably established that in the Mediterranean, on the 
ocean, in the channel, or in the North sea, a French or a 
Dutch armed vessel can scarce venture out of an harbor with- 
out being intercepted. Scarce a week passes by without the 
coasts of this country's being insulted by her men of war, 
and in France there is not the smallest resistance attempted 
against the landing of emigrant expeditions from England, 
although one considerable corps of them has been exter- 
minated after their descent was effected. The French frig- 
ates which during the last season were very successful 
against their British commerce have all been taken, or dare 
not keep the sea, and for several months past there has been 
scarce a single capture made by them, while all the ships of 
the Dutch East India Company are falling into the hands of 
their enemies, the helpless victims of the maritime impo- 
tence opposed against the British power.^ 

The state of their finances is equally far from being ex- 
hausted, and equally superior to those of France or of Hol- 
land. A loan of twenty-four millions sterling for the present 

» "This inability for resistance has distressing consequences, as it leaves the 
commerce of this republic entirely defenceless; its losses have accordingly been 
very great, and information has lately been received of eight ships richly laden 
belonging to the East India Company having fallen into the hands of the English. 
This property is not as yet appropriated to the captors by right of conquest, but 
is retained in trust for such of the Dutch owners as are not under the influence of 
the French. It is not expected, however, that it will ever be restored, and the only 
condition upon which there is any such intention professed being the reestablish- 
ment of the former government, would be infinitely more adverse to the present 
rulers than the loss of ten times as much property as can be within the reach of the 
English." To the Secretary of StaU, September 14, 1795. Ms. 



412 



THE WRITINGS OF [179s 



year does not even diminish the price of their funds a single 
farthing.^ They have kept up to the present time, when 
the season is almost past, and if twenty-four millions more 
should be called for in the course of three or four months, 
they will be found with the same facility. This profusion 
will be ruinous and destructive in its consequences I believe ; 
but for the present It gives them a mischievous strength with 
which it would not be safe to contend, and the only good 
American policy is to keep as much as possible out of Its 
reach, to remain aloof while the convulsive energy is operat- 
ing, and to wait for the inevitable moment of subsequent 
weakness.^ 

The acting Government has likewise a power within the 
country which meets with no control. The parliamentary 
opposition has scarcely gained a fraction since the beginning 
of the war ; and although there is a party in London and in 
some other commercial towns restless and which may be- 
come formidable, yet In general throughout the country the 
popular voice is unequivocally favorable to the ministerial 
system. 

On the other hand I am very doubtful whether the French 
government would be disposed to contract any engagements 
which would bind them to a common cause with us. They 
would give us as many fair words as we could wish, but 
would stipulate nothing without a consideration more than 
adequate to It. But if they should even tempt us by the 
most unlimited obligations of inseparable participation, the ; 

^Annual Register, 1795, 121. 

2 "I will not be answerable that we can much longer find funds, however nec- 
essary, for the war on a large scale, without serious ill-humor, the tendency to 
which is much promoted by the very short produce in Europe and America of the 
last year's harvests, and by the harshness of the present summer." Lord Auckland 
to Hugh Elliot, July 16, 1795. Journal and Correspondence of Lord Auckland, III. 

309- 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 413 

present state of their affairs is such as can inspire but little 
confidence in the permanency of their cooperation. They 
continue still to be victorious by land, and they may perhaps 
make advantageous treaties of peace with all the powers with 
which they are still at war, except Britain. But their in- 
ternal situation is as unsettled, the parties among them are 
as numerous, as violent, and as ready to extinguish one 
another in blood as they have ever been. There is no con- 
fidence in the new Constitution by any of the parties, and 
the popular opinions are so wide from the present system of 
government, that the Convention appear to place all their 
dependance in the armies. The intention to employ them to 
the purpose of containing the people is attributed to the 
Convention, and has been in some measure acknowledged 
by some of the governing members. The tendency of their 
politics is towards a military government, but it will cer- 
tainly not be firmly established without numerous struggles 
and violent convulsions. The policy pursued by all the 
European powers with whom they are now at peace is to 
live with them in a simple state of peace, but to form with 
them no engagements the validity of which would depend 
upon the permanency of the present order of things. Their 
future prospects exhibit a mere chaos of uncertainty, and 
it is not possible to form a rational opinion whether they will 
settle into any quiet and peaceable course of government, 
or whether they will continue to float alternately between 
anarchy and despotism, as the breath of their successive 
factions shall impel them. One thing alone is indubitable. 
It is that their present state will not be permanent. The 
only safe connection that can exist with them Is that which 
would not be liable to follow the fate of their Internal 
revolutions. 

I inclose herewith a copy of their Constitution as it has 



414 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

been agreed to by the Convention, and Is now before the 
people and the armies for acceptance. It Is presumed It 
will be adopted. You will observe that It has exploded many 
of the doctrines which but two or three years since were 
articles of political faith, that were not even susceptible of 
discussion. The sacred duty of Insurrection has disappeared, 
the popular societies are constitutionally annihilated, the 
legislature Is divided. The executive is Invested with pomp, 
and splendor, and power, and even the heresy of checks and 
balances is very near becoming an article of orthodox creed. 
The Constitution is Indeed not so absurd as the two former, 
but It will meet with the same fate. In America the great 
difficulty is to unite the people in the acceptance of a Con- 
stitution, but when once accepted it has at least some force 
and operation. In France nothing Is easier than to procure 
the adoption of a Constitution, but this adoption is the only 
effect it produces. 

The present Convention, however, in establishing this 
Constitution intend to continue themselves in possession 
of the legislative power, and the primary assemblies are com- 
manded to choose two-thirds of the members Into the first 
legislature. This decree is said to be extremely unpopular, 
not so much because it is violating every constitutional prin- 
ciple by the first act with which the Constitution is to com- 
mence, as because there are said not to be two-thirds, nor a 
tenth part, of that number, among the members of the Con- 
vention who possess any of the confidence of the people. It 
is scarcely possible indeed to conceal how unpopular the 
Assembly is with all parties, and the most conspicuous mem- 
bers at this time are not more exempt from the public censure 
than the rest.^ 

Their arms have not ceased to be victorious however, and 

^ See Taine, The Revolution, III. 424, 425. 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 415 

within these few days they have effected the passage of the 
Rhine, which has long been expected, and taken Diisseldorf. 
They have also recently concluded and ratified a treaty of 
peace with the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel.^ 

The state of affairs in this country is equally unsettled, 
and depends entirely upon the nature of the changes that 
may take place in France. The great object of solicitude 
here is the formation of a National Convention; as this 
measure would by the simple fact dissolve the federal union 
of their old Constitution, it meets with great opposition in 
some of the provinces. The parties have grown warm, and 
by mutual irritation will soon kindle into factions. In this 
Province the antifederal party is almost unanimous, and the 
word of federalist is rendered as odious as it has been in 
France, or as the opposite word has been in America. 

The present government, which has from necessity con- 
nected its fate with the success of the French, lives in con- 
stant terror of Prussia on the one side, and of Britain on the 
other. They are doomed to see their lot ascertained by the 
progress of events in which they have no participation, and 
to expect in helpless imbecility the issue which shall proscribe 
them as culprits, or fix them in their seats as the rulers of the 
land. The hundred millions of florins they are paying to 
France absorb all the supplies derived from the extreme re- 
sources to which they have already recurred. They have 
made what they call a junction of their naval forces, that is 
of the squadrons of the Texel and of Zeeland ; their news- 
papers say that the whole number of their armament thus 
united amounted to upwards of twenty vessels great and 
small, but I have been assured that most of them were mere 
hulks that could scarcely keep above water, and they have 
long since taken refuge in the Texel from the danger of an 

* William IX, who in 1803 received the title of "Elector" William I. 



4i6 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

English fleet,^ which now cruises on the coast and is frequently 
seen from the shore at Schevening [Scheveningen]. 

A Minister Plenipotentiary from the French Republic 
has arrived here a few days since. ^ We have hitherto 
visited only by cards, in the style of etiquette still preserved 
in their diplomacy, so that I have not seen him. The corps 
diplomatique here Is already very much reduced. The 
Minister from Denmark Is already gone,^ those of Portugal 
and Sweden^ will soon follow ; they go upon various pre- 
texts, but the real motive in all probability is to avoid the 
necessity of acknowledging the Convention that is impend- 
ing. I shall then be the only accredited Minister remaining, 
but I have my instructions and shall therefore be at ease. 

They have determined here to recall Mr. Van Berckel, 
who is to be directed to take leave in the most friendly man- 
ner, giving the express assurance that his recall is owing 
solely to the intention of their High Mightinesses to send 
another person in his stead. ^ That other person is a Mr. 
Van Polanen, a Zeeland Patriot, who is already in America, 
having some years ago found a refuge there from public op- 
pression and private misfortune. I have seen his lady here, 
who Is much esteemed ; he Is also as well spoken of as the 
virulence of parties will admit. 

Mr. Van Berckel's recall I understand is owing to his hav- 
ing dismissed or suspended a Dutch consul, for rejoicing at 

^ Commanded by Admiral Adam Duncan, afterwards Viscount Duncan of 
Camperdown. 

2 Jean Francois Noel (1755- )> who entered upon his office September 5. 
Masson sketches his career and thus sums it up: "Noel est le veritable modele du 
pion qui se crolt homme d'Etat." Le Departement des Af aires Etrangeres pendant 
la Revolution, 163. 

' Baron de Schubart. " < Comte de Lowenhielm. 

' Pieter J. van Berckel, who had been minister plenipotentiary of the United 
Netherlands to the United States since 1783. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 417 

the emancipation of this country. At least that is the 
reason given. But they have in general recalled all their 
ministers who were attached to the former government. 

Mr. Van Lynden, who was Ambassador at London, is 
now appointed to the Court of Denmark, 

Mr. Dumas has finally obtained from the States General 
a resolution for erasing from their registers that which 
was formerly passed containing a censure upon him, and 
the present resolution bears honorable testimony to his 
patriotism and his irreproachable conduct. He intends to 
send you this vindication of his integrity himself. He is 
now ready to say his nunc dimittis. 

I remain &c. 

TO CHARLES ADAMS 

The Hague, September 15, 1795. 

• •••••• 

You observe that there are many people who wish to raise 
a jealousy between Mr. Jay and another public character 
nearly connected with us.^ It appears to me very probable 
that such attempts will be made, and I hope with you that 
they will prove abortive ; but if I have one wish in my heart 
more forcible than any other, it is that the occasion for which 
you suppose the plan is laid may never happen. Who- 
ever may be the successor of the present first magistrate will 
hold a situation so uncomfortable and so dangerous, that 
there is nothing in its possession to make it desirable. I am 
so far from looking on that place as an object worthy of 
ambition, that if my unequivocal wishes could decide the 
point on the supposition of the contingency, which we all 
deprecate, the election would be declined in the most decisive 
and explicit manner. 

' John Adams. 

2£ 



4i8 THE WRITINGS OF I179S 

In all ages of the world and In all countries, Instability has 
been the most essential characteristic of popular opinions. 
It Is so in America, and will infallibly become so more and 
more in proportion as the Increase of population shall multi- 
ply the quantity of opinions. The revolutions of popular 
opinions are to be considered as things of course, though they 
are misfortunes to the Individuals, who are the subjects 
of them. We are however all much alike in this respect, 
and the man who has never been at different periods stren- 
uously attached to opposite opinions, would be one of the 
rarest phenomena in creation. . . . 

October 5. . . . The treatment of Mr. Jay is certainly such 
as does no honor to the American name. It appears to me 
evident enough, that very little of the outcry of which the 
treaty is made the pretence Is meant to bear against that 
instrument. There Is a combination of personal envy of 
the man, of factious enmity against the government, and of 
eternal foreign influence operating unseen, all assuming the 
mark of pure and exalted patriotism, to Impose upon the 
people ; that the mask should be assumed Is neither new 
nor strange ; but that It should still answer its purpose 
would be surprizing. If any thing could surprize. . . } 

* "The opposition to the treaty appears to be a concentered effort of anti- 
federal and French influence working with popular passions, upon a field unhap- 
pily too favorable. You may recollect that before the treaty was public, I more 
than once expressed to you a doubt as to its ratification, though the most obnoxious 
clause it contains, the one upon the suspension of which the ratification is con- 
ditioned, was not then known to me. The hope that we shall ever have with Great 
Britain a treaty such as we should be glad to have, is idle and absurd. The in- 
terests of the two nations inevitably militate too much to have such a thing prac- 
ticable. I am afraid we shall find it but too easy to get into a war with them." 
To Sylvanus Bourne, October lO, 1795, Ms. 

Four days later (October 14) he received instructions from the Department of 
State to go to London. On the 19th he presented his brother and Secretary, 
Thomas Boylston Adams, to the Dutch officials as charge des affaires in his absence, 
and prepared for his own journey. 



I79S1 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 419 

TO DANIEL SARGENT 1 

The Hague, October 12, 1795. 

• •••••• 

The people of the United States have In their own pos- 
session the choice between peace, with unparalleled pros- 
perity, and war, with universal calamity. It gives me pain 
to see that there are so many who can be induced to hesitate 
for such a length of time in making a choice. A war indeed 
at present with Great Britain must be total destruction to 
the commerce of our country ; for there is no maritime power 
on earth that can contend with the existing naval British 
force. This fact is so fully ascertained, that for these three 
or four months the French and Dutch fleets have been 
obliged to shelter themselves in their respective ports, and 
in every part of the European ocean their enemy has held 
undisputed possession. How far an American merchant 
under these circumstances can be prepared for war, or willing 
to support measures that must lead to it, I cannot readily 
conjecture. 

It is far from my wish that the proceedings of the British 
government towards the United States and their citizens 
should be forgotten. If resentment were a good or a safe 
foundation for political measures, few Americans perhaps 
would be disposed to go further than I should. But of all 
the guides that a nation can follow, passion is the most 
treacherous, and prudence the most faithful. If our coun- 
trymen can be sufficiently impressed with this truth, I be- 
lieve no great length of time will pass, before they will see 
our national injuries avenged, with a severity which will 
gratify the most inveterate enmity. . . . 

*0f Boston, born in 1731, and died in 1806. 



420 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

TO W. & J. WILLINK AND N. & J. VAN 
STAPHORST & HUBBARD 

The Hague, October 16, 1795. 
Gentlemen : 

In reply to your favor of yesterday you will permit me to 
waive any further discussion relative to the bill of Dallard 
and Swan. But while you have the security not only of the 
Treasury order upon them, but also the bill of Lubbert and 
Dumas, with yet another in case of urgent necessity, I do 
not consider the payment as in the smallest degree pre- 
carious. 

Upon what grounds Messrs. John and Francis Baring & 
Co.^ assured Mr. Hubbard, that the Treasury did not ex- 
pect the funds sent for you would produce more than ninety 
per cent, and that such sales would be satisfactory, I know 
not. Such an assurance is certainly not inferable from any 
directions that either you or I have received from the Treas- 
ury Department. It is so far from being satisfactory to me 
under the instructions which I have received, that I should 
now request you in the most earnest manner to give im- 
mediate orders for the suspension of the sales upon such 
terms, but for the information in your last letter. The loss 
to the United States on these sales will be such as in my 
opinion can be warranted only by a conviction, founded upon 
substantial reasons, that it would not be disapproved by the 
Secretary of the Treasury. 

As the three hundred thousand florins, lately remitted 
you from the Treasury Department, were destined and 
appropriated among other purposes for the payment of the 
Antwerp interest, I believe that the part of the sum 

^ Francis Baring (1740-1810) was the founder of the financial house of Barings. 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 421 

necessary for that operation cannot be applied to any other 
purpose whatever. 

You observe, that "the doctrine laid down by me relative 
to the payment you made of the last Antwerp interest es- 
tablished the propriety and justice of a debt first due having 
an undeniable right to be discharged prior to one falling due 
at a later period." 

This reference to a former occasion, upon which I had with 
regret an opinion different from yours, makes it necessary 
for me to observe that your present statement draws from 
what I then said an inference more extensive and general 
than I think the expressions will support. I contended that 
the government of the United States had the right to direct 
the application of any balance in the hands of their agents 
to such payments as they thought proper, that the agents 
had no authority to divert a special appropriation to the 
discharge of any other demand, and that if it should happen 
that a double appropriation were made of the same sum, it 
would then be incumbent on the agents to make payments 
according to their orders as they should be demanded^ so long 
as their money lasted. 

To this opinion I still adhere ; but I think it does not by 
any means involve any conclusion relative to the respective 
merits of a prior or a subsequent claim to the payment of a 
debt in general. 

I could not intend to advance an unqualified position that 
a debt first due has an undeniable right to be first paid, be- 
cause I never had an idea that the principle, thus unlimited, 
had any foundation. There are a variety of circumstances, 
which may give a superior claim to the payment the most 
recently due. 

I Of this matter I consider the demand for the payment of 
interest at its stipulated periods. Punctuality on this article 



422 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

is in general a more imperious duty of the debtor, because 
it is more essential to the convenience, and perhaps to the 
necessities, of the creditor. 

Your opinion in this respect appears to be the same ; as, 
although you have not paid the instalment of principal which 
became payable last June, you have paid considerable sums 
of interest, which have since that time become due. 

When therefore the government of the United States have 
made a particular remittance, with orders to you that it 
should be applied to the payment of certain interest, I do 
not think you have any authority to refuse making that ap- 
plication, and to employ the money for the payment of an 
instalment of principal, previously payable, and for the dis- 
charge of which other ample funds were provided, though 
unfortunately they were in stocks. 

I must now request, gentlemen, your final and positive 
answer, whether you will supply Mr. De Wolf the sums 
necessary for the punctual payment of the interest upon the 
Antwerp loan payable in December. 

Whatever your decision may be, it will doubtless be such 
as you will justify to the government of the United States. 

I am under an Inevitable necessity of answering the call 
which Mr. De Wolf has made on me, but shall yet suspend 
my answer until I receive yours. I am unwilling to write 
him that you chuse to make an application variant from your 
orders, of remittances lately made and destined for him. I 
am still more unwilling to give him the means of procuring 
the supply elsewhere, in a manner that will be burdensome to 
the United States ; and, indeed, I cannot recur to other re- 
sources, without being first convinced that the supplies in 
your hands will fall. But the first of December is rapidly 
approaching, some provision for the payment of that day 
must be made, and as far as the means in my power extend, 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 423 

I am bound to use them all, if necessary to ensure a punctual 
discharge of interest. . . . ^ 

I am &c. 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

Helvoetsluys,^ October 31, 1795. 



My Dear Sir : 



The service indeed upon which I am now ordered has 
nothing to please in prospect. To deal with a British Minis- 
ter, to deal with him after Mr. Jay, and with the furious 
persecution that this gentleman has suffered for this very 
transaction, fresh before my eyes and yet rumbling in my 
ears, has nothing attractive to ambition or flattering to 
hope. On one side the perspective is illiberal and captious 
negotiation, and probable failure, or such a success as will 
not be much better ; on the other is virulent reproach and 
abuse to extend as usual to my nearest friends, and lavished 
more on them than on me. That both these things will be 
combined for my endurance in the course of the business is 

1 He left the Hague October 21, reached Rotterdam the same day, and on the 
22d went to Helvoetsluys. See Memoirs, October, 1795. "The only remedy against 
moral as well as physical evil must very often be patience. At the obstinacy of 
the winds, which continued all this day, I have fretted not more than usual. I have, 
indeed, taken to myself some little consolation of vanity, from the idea that I have 
borne the vexation with philosophy more than common to me; and since I find that 
all the anxiety with which my eyes have involuntarily turned with constant itera- 
tion to all the vanes and weathercocks in sight has been merely gratuitous ; that 
the kindness of a weathercock would have given me no relief, and that all the stores 
of Lapland magic would have been useless in my hands, I have been rather fortified 
than weakened in my resignation, and have only pitied those who can prevail upon 
themselves to practise impositions without necessity." To Thomas B. Adams, 
October 27, 1795. Ms. 

*"Put up at Bridge's, an English house, and tolerably good." Ms. Diary. 
But see the Memoirs, October 28, 1795. 



424 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

highly probable. One or the other of them Is Inevitable, for 
the existence of the first In Its utmost extent will be the only 
possible protection against the certainty of the second. 

These anticipations do not, however, In themselves form 
my principal concern. I know that success Is seldom at 
human disposal, and that censure, If unmerited. Is an evil 
not Intolerable. It Is not therefore the responsibility of this 
agency that I dread, but It Is the magnitude of the trust, and 
my own incompetency ; the first being only my personal con- 
cern, but the last Involving the most Important Interests, and 
the welfare of my country. 

It Is possible that the result of my present mission may 
ascertain the termination of my residence In Europe, In- 
dependent of any act of my own will, or perhaps It will serve 
to give a direction to It. Your recommendation to me to 
return to America at the close of a three years' absence, un- 
less removed to a different scene and raised to an higher 
trust, will have, as all advice from you will always have, great 
weight In my mind. But I must assure you In the most un- 
equivocal manner that I have not the shadow of a wish for a 
more elevated rank than that In which I am now placed, and 
that, of the only two American missions in Europe where the 
higher character Is employed, I consider the English as an 
object of aversion and the French of indifference. 

As there Is no present prospect of vacancy in either of 
those places. It will be unnecessary for me to give you the 
numerous reasons upon which my sentiments concerning 
them are formed. A dislike both of the government and 
national character, perhaps amounting even to a prejudice, 
Is the principal ground of the first, and the unsettled revolu- 
tionary state of the country Is at least a counterbalance to 
any predilection I might otherwise entertain In favor of the 
other. 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 425 

Besides these considerations, if I had not collected a suffi- 
cient portion of the "Stoic spirit" to dull the edge of my am- 
bition, if the vanity of rank or the parade of representation 
had in my eyes such charms as could overpower my philos- 
ophy, I should at least teach my desires a subordination 
to the sentiments of justice, at least command them to com- 
pare the merits of their claims with those of others and be 
•silent. If diplomatic promotion In this course of duty be an 
advantage or a reward, and the occasion should occur for 
bestowing it, the United States, besides all their deserving 
citizens at home, have other servants in Europe in the same 
station with me, older In years, more versed in public affairs, 
entitled by long and faithful service to the notice of public 
recompense, and without a delirium of extravagance could I 
expect advancement while they remain stationary ? With- 
out an arrogance of equal injustice and absurdity could I 
wish it ? ''I 

The situation at The Hague, therefore. Insignificant as It 
is, satisfies me with an employment which, without being 
tedious or painful, Is adequate to my talents, and leaves me 
leisure to pursue any course of studies that may be recom- 
mended by its amusement or utility. Indeed, Sir, It is a 
situation in Itself much preferable to that of eternal expecta- 
tion in a lawyer's office for business which, when it comes. Is 
|i scarcely sufficient to give bread, and procures one more curses 
than thanks. I may be reduced once more to the necessity 
of going through that trial, but as long as any other honest 
resource Is left me, the remembrance of that probation will 
suffice me, and I shall not be willing to go through it 
again. . . . 



426 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

TO CHARLES ADAMS 

Helvoetsluys, November 4, 1795. 

The state of this country is in general tolerably quiet and 
peaceable, excepting every now and then a little irregular 
usurpation of sovereignty by clubs and popular assemblages ; 
hitherto they have not been followed by any tragical event. 
The dissolution of the confederation, and the consolidation 
of all the provinces into a sing'e republic, by the convo- 
cation of a National Assembly, has been for many months an 
object of great solicitude, more especially because a differ- 
ence of opinion has arisen In the different provinces, upon the 
propriety of the proposed alteration. The province of Hol- 
land almost unanimously, and the popular societies and 
clubs In all the others, have pursued very tenaciously the 
point upon which they think the permanency of their revo- 
lution will turn ; but the majority of the people in most of 
the smaller provinces, are strenuously averse to the change, 
and adhere tenaciously to their federal system. The parties 
have at length proceeded so far, that the provincial assembly | 
of Holland has taken a formal resolution, that in case the 
other provinces do not unanimously agree to call the Na- 
tional Assembly by the 25th of this month, this province 
will take the step alone, or together with those that will 
agree to join it, without waiting any longer for the assent 
of the remaining members. 

I have been amused but not surprized, to observe with 
what zeal the most ardent patriots here connect in argu- 
ment, provincial sovereignty and aristocracy, after having seen 
so many patriots no less ardent in America, labouring with | 
the same Industry, to make the essence of Republicanism 
consist in State Sovereignty. I knew before this that the 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 4^7 

arguments of a party are generally urged more for their 
operation than for their weight. . . . 



TO TIMOTHY PICKERING ^ 

London, November 15, 1795. 
(Private.) 

Sir : 

I have to thank you for your favor of September 10, 
which Mr. Deas delivered to me on my arrival here. The 
letter of Mr. Randolph, dated July 21,^ had indeed been to 
me a subject of equal pain and surprise. Combined with 
the numerous accounts of irregular popular proceedings in 
different parts of the United States, and with a prejudice 
discoverable in the minds of almost all the Americans I met 
who had recently come from the United States, it induced 
an unpleasant anticipation of the consequences that awaited 
the United States from the designs of some, and the un- 
guarded hastiness of others, among their citizens. 

It gives me pleasure to observe from your letter, that the 
proceedings of the popular meetings on the subject of the 

^ Adams landed at Margate November lo, and reached London the next day, 
only to find that the exchange of ratifications of the treaty had been performed by 
William Allen Deas. It remained for him to await further instructions from the 
State Department upon the twelfth article of the treaty and upon certain points not 
dealt with in that document. These instructions, sketched by Randolph, were 
suppressed by Pickering, his successor in office, as having been formed "under the 
impression of ideas quite foreign to an immediate ratification of that treaty." 
The subject was not resumed until too late for Adams to be the agent. 

' Printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I. 719. "The complexion 
of his whole letter shows that these popular meetings were not displeasing to him ; 
and combined with various facts, which I cannot now detail, indicating studied 
delays, to give him for extending the opposition, satisfies me that his true-object 
was to defeat the treaty altogether." Pickering to Adams, September 10, 1795. 
Ms. 



428 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

treaty are in every respect less important, than from many 
circumstances I liad been apprehensive. That the hasty 
rashness of the meetings was the result of a concerted plan, 
and that every artifice had been employed to take the people 
by surprise, and to use them as instruments for a purpose, 
the success of which would eventually prove their irreparable 
misfortune, I can readily believe, as I had long suspected 
that such would be the case before it happened ; but that 
the Secretary of State should be accessary to such a ma- 
noeuvre is what I could not have believed from any opinion 
less respectable than yours, and of which I would still fain 
hope he was innocent. 

The occasion of his resignation you have mentioned, 
however, as originating in a different source. But notwith- 
standing the force of your expression, that he had forfeited 
the confidence of the President, the story which Is not much 
of a secret here must be loaded with great exaggerations, if 
not with absolute falsehood. 

The intelligence of the pacifications with the Indian tribes 
and of the general prosperity enjoyed throughout the United 
States, while it accounts in some measure for the violence 
and the arts used to defeat the system to which the peace 
and prosperity can alone be attributed, is, I would hope, a 
sure token that all the endeavors to delude the people into a 
sacrifice of their own welfare will prove as unsuccessful as 
they have hitherto been. 

The system of policy pursued by the President since the 
commencement of the present European war has been en- 
countered by so many difficulties and embarrassments, 
which the wisdom of his government has removed and over- 
come, that I feel encouraged In the hope that it will be 
successfully pursued to the end. The war in all probability 
approaches towards Its termination. Another campaign Is 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 429 

barely possible. More than one I cannot under the present 
state of affairs anticipate, and the scale of probability as it 
appears to me inclines towards a general peace, or at 
least a cessation of hostilities before the close of the year 
ensuing. . . . 

The situation of this country one would imagine not much 
less critical than that of France and of the United Provinces. 
The scarcity of grain and flour is so considerable that it has 
been among the first subjects of deliberation to the Parlia- 
ment now assembled, to take measures for preventing an 
absolute famine. Riots have recently taken place in differ- 
ent parts of the Kingdom owing to the price of provisions, 
of bread especially, and those who have been so anxiously 
desirous of trying the experiment of a famine abroad may 
perhaps witness its effects without going from home. 

This circumstance has naturally given a vigor to the dis- 
contented party, and has much increased the fermentation 
that was before operating in silence among the lower ranks 
of people particularly in the capital. Numerous popular 
meetings have been held, and their orators have declaimed 
in that kind of style which produces the effect against which 
the laws were intended to guard, without infringing the laws 
themselves. On the first day of the present session of Parlia- 
ment the King was personally insulted, the glass of his coach 
was broken by a stone, and it is the fashion here to say, that 
his life was aimed at. 

This was probably not the case. In the present state of 
things the life of the king can be no object to the party hos- 
tile to the government. An assassination would do them 
great injury, and could be of no possible advantage. But to 
prove that he may be insulted with impunity is, doubtless, 
a point of consequence to those who found their hopes of a 
Revolution on the degradation of the royal character. 



430 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

Whatever the fact or the Intention really was, it has been 
the occasion of two bills introduced by the Ministers now 
pending, one in the House of Lords, and the other in the 
House of Commons. Their professed objects are the security 
of the King's person and the prevention of seditious meetings 
and assemblies ; but their operation must be to abridge very 
materially the right of political discussion, and the public 
voice In the capital Is strongly decided against them. In 
my next letter I shall give a further account of the proceed- 
ings on this subject, which becomes Interesting from the un- 
common degree of the public attention It has excited, and 
in the interval remain, with perfect respect, Sir, etc.^ 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, November 17, 1795. 
My Dear Sir : 

After a detention of twenty days at Helvoetsluys, and a 
pleasant passage of twenty-four hours from thence to Mar- 
gate, I arrived here on the morning of the nth instant. The 
state of the business on which I came will be known to you 
before the receipt of this letter. 

An English paper that I saw at Rotterdam on the day of 
my departure from the Hague gave me the first information 
of Mr. Randolph's resignation. On my arrival here I found 
a story of Its supposed occasion, for which I fear there Is too 
much foundation, though I think It must have received high 
aggravations from those who make little scruple of divulg- 
ing it. At present I can only suspend my judgment upon 
the degree of misconduct chargeable on him, and still hope 
that he was never influenced by motives more criminal than 
those of a misguided party spirit. I shall reserve for a 

^ See Adams, Memoirs, December i, 1795; Annual Register, 1796, 17. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 431 

future letter some observations relative to the means of in- 
fluence used by a foreign power in the United States, and 
confine myself in this to such observations as have occurred 
to me on the state of affairs in those parts of Europe the most 
interesting to our country. 

The new French legislature assumed its functions on the 
27th of last month. ^ No account of any very important 
transaction by them has yet reached this country. The 
members of the Executive directory are Larevelliere-Le- 
peaux,^ Letourneur,^ Rewbell/ Barras ^ and Carnot.^ The 
last was chosen to replace Sieyes, who was in the first ap- 
pointment by a small majority and declined. 

Carnot was a member of Robespierre's Committee of 
Public Safety, and I think the only one remaining alive who 
has not been under arrest by order of the Convention, a fate 
which he very narrowly escaped not more than four months 
ago. He was then spared as was said on account of his 
military merit, as the design of the campaign which ter- 
minated in the conquest of the Netherlands is attributed to 
him. 

^ The elections in France under the new constitution had been held October 20. 
As two-thirds of the new Corps Legislatif were to be taken from the members of the 
old Convention, four hundred and ninety-three members should have been thus 
elected. In fact, only three hundred and eighty-nine were returned, leaving one 
hundred and four to be chosen by the elected members from the Convention, who 
selected sympathizers with their own policy. This expedient retained in power 
a majority of the old Convention, and resulted in less than two years in the 
overthrow of the Republic. The five Directors were chosen from this party, 
and the council of the Ancients from the members of the Corps Legislatif. For 
the characters and powers of the Directory, see Cambridge .Modern History, 
VIII. 490. 

^ Louis-Marie de la Revelliere-Lepaux (1753-1824). 

' Charles-Louis-Fran<;:ois-Honore Letourneur (1751-1817). 

* Jean-Franfois Rewbell (1747-1807). 

* Paul-Franfois-Jean-Nicolas, vicomte de Barras (1755-1829). 
' Lazare-Nicolas-Marguerite Carnot (1753-1823). 



432 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

The fluctuation of fortunes and reputations is equally 
remarkable in the choice of the other members, and even in 
the consideration of persons who were not chosen. 

Boissy d'Anglas/ Cambaceres,^ Lanjuinais,^ Henry Lari- 
viere,^ the demi-gods of the month of June, are out of the 
question. The reason is that they were not forward in support 
of the decree of reelection which produced the late convulsion, 
and the most recent services are the only ones remembered. 

If the tone of the Directory can be anticipated by any 
consideration of the character of its members, it will not be 
remarkable for stability or harmony. The only man whose 
personal character can give him any pretensions to power, 
the only one whose conduct has a system for its basis, Sieyes, 
refused the seat that was offered him. It was a place he said 
which required that its holder should possess the general 
confidence, and no man could be more unfit for it than him, 
against whom all parties without exception since the be- 
ginning of the Revolution had pointed as a mark. 

Did Sieyes imagine that any other man in France pos- 
sessed the general confidence, or ever could possess it more 
than three months together .'' No, for independent of his 
experience it is not understanding or sagacity that are his 
deficiencies. Could he be serious when he represented him- 
self as having been the special mark of all the successive 
factions .'' — he .? — Sieyes ? — the only man of note whom 
every successive faction has spared. The only man extant, 
who from the day when the first Constituent Assembly met 
to the present, has been openly or unseen concerned in the 
most important affairs. The man whose mere existence at 

^ Franfois-Antoine Boissy d'Anglas (1756-1826). 

2 Jean-Joseph-RegIs Cambaceres (1753-1824). 

^Jean-Denis Lanjuinais (1753-1827). 

^ Pierre-Franfois-Joachim-Henri de Lariviere (1761-1838). 



I795I JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 433 

this day is a standing miracle, and amounts to proof that 
there are no universalities in nature, and that everything 
has an exception ? No, no. He certainly knew better. 

But he was determined to refuse, and some reason he must 
give. This was a very good one to profess, it contained an 
eulogium of himself without offending others. It had a 
natural tendency to increase his influence with those who 
believed his assertion, if any such there were ; and as to those 
who did not believe him. It may be supposed they were very 
indifferent whether he spoke the truth or not. 

From my arresting your attention so long and repeatedly 
upon the motions of this one man, I hope you will not think 
I give him an importance that he does not deserve. To 
speak my mind freely, I consider him as the main spring of 
the French external policy.^ I believe, further, that his policy 
as respects the United States Is of a tendency as pernicious 
to them, as If it had been Invented In the councils of the 
Prince of Darkness. 

In the present instance he avoids a station of show as he 
has always uniformly done ; he remains in the Council of 
five hundred, and will be satisfied with having the great por- 
tion of executive management really In his hands. He is so 
much of a metaphysician that he values the substance more 
than the appearance of power, and he secures to himself the 
advantage of protection from the most Imminent hazards 
that may attend new Revolutions. 

The new Legislature did not assemble under the fairest 
auspices that could be wished. A civil war in the heart of 
Paris but a few days before stifled in blood,^ a paper currency 

1 The Directors appointed, November 3, Charles Delacroix Minister of Foreign 
Affairs; but Rewbell exercised an important influence in that Department. 

' See Monroe's despatches of October 20, and November 18, 1795, in Writings of 
James Monroe, II. 379, 415. 
27 



434 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

depreciated to the lowest extreme of sufferance, an expense 
of more than an hundred daily millions to support, and de- 
feat, a word of which they had almost lost the use, attending 
their armies. Internal discord can scarcely be mentioned 
as one of their distresses, because it has become their ordinary 
state, and its evils have lost their horror in their frequency; 
but dissension with their new allies may be added to the list 
of the embarrassments under which they have yet the courage 
to retain a compulsive hold of the public helm. 

I remain &c. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
[Timothy Pickering, acting] 

London, December 5, 1795. 
Sir: 

I saw yesterday Lord Grenville at his office, and had a 
lengthy conversation with him upon subjects connected with 
the object of my mission here, and upon those concerning 
which your instructions had previously been executed by 
Mr. Deas. 

I found Sir William Scott,^ the Advocate General, with 
him. The point first discussed was that concerning the cases 
proposed to be settled by compromise. This matter being, 
however, still unsettled I shall reserve for a separate letter 
an account of whatever relates to it. 

The Advocate General having withdrawn, the compen- 
sation to the Commissioners was mentioned, and I told his 
Lordship that upon further reflection I had been confirmed 
in the opinion that my authority from the American govern- 

^ Afterwards Lord Stowell (1745-1836). 



1795] . JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 435 

mcnt would not permit me to make any discrimination in 
the pay of the several members of the same Commission. 
That wishing, however, to be candid with him, I should 
acknowledge that my instructions allowed me to agree to the 
sum of £1500 to the Commissioners for the debts and for 
the spoliations, and £1000 for those who are to determine the 
river St. Croix ; and that rather than incur the delay neces- 
sary for taking the opinion of the American government, I 
should consent to those sums, though, at the same time, I 
must repeat that smaller sums would be preferred by them. 
He said that the principal object with him for thinking £1500 
necessary was, that he might propose it to the persons whom 
he had in his mind to send to America, and who would not 
go for less. That if I pleased, therefore, the agreement 
might be as he had before proposed to me, reserving to the 
American government the right to change it, if they thought 
proper, so far as to make the pay for all the same. I said 
once more that I had no authority to admit for a moment the 
idea of discrimination, but that as the reason he had men- 
tioned for making it appeared weighty to my own mind, if 
he pleased the agreement should be such that the largest 
sums mentioned should be allowed to all the Commissioners 
alike, reserving to the American government the right to 
reduce, if they think proper, to £1000 the pay of those Com- 
missioners who shall be in both instances not obliged to 
go beyond sea for the performance of their service. To 
this he agreed, requesting me until the determination of the 
American government be known not to mention the cir- 
cumstance here, because he did not wish the future Com- 
missioners here should be led to expect so much as £1500. T 
told him I should certainly be silent on the subject, and 
mentioned the propriety of having something written upon 
the agreement. He said he would in the course of a few 



436 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

days write me a note mentioning the agreement as It has been 
made in our conversation. 

I then observed there was a subject concerning which I 
had no instructions, nor indeed any communications, from 
the Government of the United States, but concerning which 
I had reason to believe the sensations in America were so 
strong that I felt myself bound in duty to suggest them, as 
indeed I had been required to do by the agent of American 
claims,^ who had received the sentiments of our govern- 
ment on the subject. That I understood there were several 
cases now pending before the Lords Commissioners of Ap- 
peals which involved in their decision certain points of na- 
tional concern, upon which I should be happy to have some 
conversation with him, and that a decision had taken place 
during the course of the last summer which I believed, when 
made known in America, had occasioned disappoiiitment 
and chagrin: that the ground upon which I had understood 
the condemnation had taken place, was the transient resi- 
dence of one of the parties in the island of Guadeloupe; that 
there were indeed other incidental points, which I had been, 
however, informed had been given up or not insisted on upon 
the appeal, but that on the facts of the case as they were 
known to the American government, there was no legal prin- 
ciple upon which they conceived that property liable to con- 
demnation ; that upon the occasion of the trial of that case, 
one point had arisen, upon which, if I was rightly informed, 
one of the Lords Commissioners had observed that some 
understanding between the two countries might be advis- 
able, and that my own wish to prevent the irritation that 
must be occasioned by decisions so unfavorable to the inter- 

^ Samuel Bayard (1767-1840) was, on the suggestion of Jay, sent to England 
in 1794 to represent the claims of American citizens before the prize courts in that 
country. His reports are in the Department of State. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 437 

ests, and so adverse to the opinions of my country, induced 
me to desire every possible occasion to discuss tlie points 
upon which a difference of opinion between the two nations 
might subsist. He said that he would cheerfully enter upon 
any such discussion ; that the government of this country 
never interfered in judicial proceedings to influence the de- 
cisions ; but that there might be agreements upon such or 
such principle of the laws of nations, which agreements 
would be considered as rules to guide the decrees. 

Several of these points upon which interesting questions 
now depend were mentioned, but not much dwelt upon. I 
thought it sufficient at this time to introduce the subject, 
which may be a very extensive one, and which is totally dis- 
connected with any instructions that I have hitherto re- 
ceived. 

I then came to points upon which I had been honored 
with your orders and said that the instructions of the Ameri- 
can government relative to the further matters which I 
should submit to his consideration, having been executed 
already by Mr. Deas, it was perhaps less necessary for me to 
enter largely upon the business than it might otherwise 
have been ; but that as these concerns had now devolved 
upon me, I thought it essential to the discharge of my duty 
to notice what had been specially recommended to my at- 
tention. That the President of the United States had been 
informed of numerous captures having been made, during 
the course of the last summer, of American vessels laden 
with provisions, in consequence of an order said to have been 
issued under his Majesty's authority, and I was directed to 
inquire into the existence of such an order. He said that he 
would direct Mr. Hammond in the course of a very few days 
to send me a copy of that order; that a copy of it had been 
sent, to be communicated to the American government in 



438 THE WRITINGS OF I179S 

America with suitable explanations, but that the manner 
in which Mr. Deas had thought proper to execute his in- 
structions was such that he (Lord Grenville) chose to have 
no communication with him on the subject. He then added 
that the treaty admitted by implication that there are cases 
in which provisions and other articles not generally contra- 
band may become so, and stipulated that until the two coun- 
tries should agree on this subject their respective conduct 
towards each other shall be regulated by the existing law of 
nations ; that he believed there was not a single writer upon 
the law of nations who did not lay down the principle that 
provisions may become contraband, and that the known 
passage of Vattel, a modern and judicious writer, who upon 
the subject of national law had taken the indulgent side, and 
might be considered as a protestant of political doctrines, 
expressly stated that provisions may be liable to capture 
with indemnity, when the distress of the enemy is such for 
want of them that it becomes a mean of reducing them, or 
of procuring an advantageous peace ; that, besides, it is 
equally clear that vessels may be detained upon suspicion 
of their having on board property belonging to the enemy of 
the captor, by the treaty and by the existing law of nations. 
Now, the order only directs a capture when both the circum- 
stances concur; that is, when the vessels are laden with 
provisions, and when there is any suspicion of enemy's prop- 
erty. It does not, therefore, go to the extent that it might 
without any violation of right.^ 

"With respect to the treaty (said I) my instructions ex- 
pressly command me to say that its ratification must not be 
construed into an admission of the legality of this order. As 
to the principle stated by your Lordship as being laid down 
by Vattel, it could not be applicable in the present case, even 

*0n provisions as contraband, see Moore, Digest of I nUr national Law, VII. 675. 



I795I JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 439 

if admitted, unless there were also an admission of fact. 
That Is, that his Majesty's enemies were so distressed for 
want of provisions, that they were susceptible of being re- 
duced by the capture of neutral vessels carrying provisions 
to them. This point I do not wish to discuss with you. As 
to the suspicion of having enemy's property on board, even 
supposing that could justify detention, it could justify noth- 
ing more, and in this case there is much more. There is 
taking property from its owners against their will, and 
giving them a supposed indemnity equally without their 
will." "But," said he, "it is customary in the Courts of 
Admiralty, whenever articles perishable in their nature must 
be endangered by the detention necessary until the deter- 
mination of the cause for which they were taken, to sell the 
articles under a decree of the Court, and pay the proceeds 
to the party." "Even that," said I, "differs essentially 
from taking a man's property, and paying him according to 
your own estimation. A sale is attended with competition, 
and, where an article is in demand, will produce a price." 
"I believe," said he, "it is very well understood that the 
payments for the provisions that have been brought In were 
more advantageous to the merchants than a sale would have 
been." I thought It unnecessary to urge this point any 
further. The answer to the last observation is very obvious, 
but It had run wide from the position of a right to detain 
on suspicion, or any consequences deduciblc from it. 

As the principle of this order (I resumed) is not admitted 
by the American government, considerations of Its peculiar 
inconvenience to the United States and their citizens form but 
a secondary ground of objection. Provisions are among the 
most valuable articles of our export trade. They are Indeed 
more valuable, proportionally speaking, to us than to any 
other commercial nation ; a restraint therefore upon the free- 



440 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

dom of this trade by external power has a more extensive 
operation upon our Interests than upon those of any others, 
and It has the appearance of being specially pointed against 
us. For however general the expressions In which the order 
is couched may be, as comprehending all neutral nations, yet 
if, in the nature of things It can operate only against one, it 
must be understood to have had an application only to that 
nation. Besides this, If my information be accurate, the 
same rate of Indemnity has In the cases of the late captures 
been allowed to the neutral proprietors of all the several 
nations. Now the same per centum upon a cargo coming 
from Hamburg might afford a very handsome profit, and 
coming from Philadelphia would give scarce any at all ; as 
in estimating the rate of profits upon any given capital, the 
time during which It Is employed forms an essential ingre- 
dient. A vessel from Hamburg to France might perform ten 
or a dozen voyages to and fro in the course of a year. From 
America the average could not amount to more than two. 
The same rule, therefore, produces very different effects 
upon circumstances which nature has made so different. 
These observations are made not as admitting that any 
indemnity whatever could obtain our assent to the legality 
of captures, but in order to show the character of the order 
itself, by the partial and unequal effects that it necessarily 
produces. 

He said that it would be shown by the accounts of the 
sums paid or to be paid by this government for these pro- 
visions, that the American vessels brought In amounted to 
quite a small proportion of the whole ; that the order had In 
fact operated much more upon the nations up the Baltic 
than upon the United States, and that it was really intended 
that it should ; that he would direct that the amount of the 
accounts should be shown mc ; and as to the rates of in- 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 441 

demnity, he appeared in some measures to admit the reason 
of the observation I had made, but said that it was qualified 
by the circumstance of the great difference in the freights. 
The next particular of your instructions to which I ad- 
verted, was the stipulation in the second article of the treaty, 
for the delivery of the posts, and the previous measures 
provided to be taken to effect the evacuation. I told him I 
was ordered to urge for the immediate performance of that 
engagement. He said that the orders had been made for 
the purpose, and he believed they had been sent out. "But," 
said he, "it cannot be surprising if, upon seeing in what 
manner the treaty has been received in America, and the 
opposition which it has met and still meets there, we should 
think it necessary to be upon our guard. If, upon the meet- 
ing of Congress, a difficulty should be raised and prevail 
against passing the laws which may be necessary to give 
eff"ect to certain articles of the treaty, it cannot be expected 
that we should be willing to perform on our side without 
performance on the other." I then replied that I could not 
undertake to say before hand what the Congress of the 
United States in any instance would think proper to do. 
But I had not the smallest doubt and I believed this govern- 
ment had no reason to doubt, but that the United States 
would faithfully perform all their engagements. That with 
respect to the opposition advanced against the treaty. Its 
appearance I had reason to believe from good authority, 
was more formidable than its reality ; that it was the nature 
of opposition to any public measure In that country to be 
bold, open, public, industrious, and active; that it was even 
more so there than elsewhere, and arose from the principle 
of liberty, upon which the government was founded ; that, 
upon an occasion of such universal Interest as that treaty, 
opposition was very natural, and Its ordinary character 



442 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

might derive from the importance of the subject an unusual 
degree of apparent energy, and it would show itself in its 
utmost extent, which was further magnified by a view of it 
at this distance. He said he could readily believe it, and that 
the force of the observation upon the character of opposi- 
tion would be understood and acknowledged with peculiar 
conviction by Englishmen. 

I then added, "I am thoroughly convinced that the en- 
gagements of the American government will be punctually 
discharged, and I hope most sincerely that if on either side 
of the water there are persons really desirous to revive the 
causes of former differences, or to generate occasions for 
new ones, persons who wish to accumulate irritations, which 
the interest of both nations would entirely remove, and to 
instigate a failure on their own side as a provocation to the 
other, their views may be entirely frustrated." He then 
repeated that " he believed the orders for the evacuation of 
the posts had been sent out." 

After saying thus much upon the matters relating to the 
treaty, I observed that there were two new aggressions, on 
the part of officers in his Majesty's service, which it was my 
duty to recall to his lordship's recollection. A memorial 
on the subject had been presented by Mr. Deas, and he 
had sent the documents by which the facts were substan- 
tiated. It remained only for me to repeat the demand of 
reparation for what was considered by the American govern- 
ment as an outrageous violation of their territorial juris- 
diction, and as being highly aggravated by an attack upon 
a foreign minister entitled to all the protection which the 
laws of nations could give to such a character. That the 
instance was indeed of such a complexion that the President 
had thought proper to revoke the exequatur of Mr. Moore, 
his Majesty's Vice Consul at Rhode Island, who appeared 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 443 

to have cooperated in the offense to such a degree as made 
it proper for the American government to do itself justice 
as far as concerned him.^ 

He said that immediately upon receiving information of 
the charge against Captain Home, an order had been issued 
by the Lords of Admiralty to him for the purpose of hearing 
what he should have to say in his justification ; that he could 
assure me no officer in his Majesty's service would ever be 
countenanced in such acts as the violation of a friendly 
nation's territorial rights, aggravated by an injury to the 
privileged character of a foreign minister. He mentioned 
this the rather, because, although no representations on the 
affair had yet been received from Captain Home himself, 
he had reason to suppose, from other statements which he 
had seen, that the violation of territory would be denied by 
the captain, who would maintain that the transaction took 
place at such a distance from the American coast as took it 
altogether out of the territorial jurisdiction of the United 
States. I told him that the determination of this govern- 
ment, or the evidence upon which they might found it, was 
not a subject for my consideration. I should only remark, 
from a personal knowledge of the place where the event 
occurred, and of the points from and to which the packet 
was going, that the pretence that the fact happened upon the 
high seas out of our jurisdiction, if raised, would, in my 
opinion, be disproved by the simple local relation of the 
places. 

"With respect to the case of Mr. Moore (said Lord Gren- 
ville) that is a little different. An express stipulation of 
the treaty gives each of the two governments the right of 
dismissing the consuls of the other for such reasons as itself 

^ This refers to the search of the Peggy by boats from the British ship of war 
Africa, for the departing French minister Fauchet and his papers. 



444 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

thinks proper. Whether the reason be good or bad, it is 
the mere exercise of a right reserved, upon which the other 
government has nothing to say. So that the President, if 
he pleased, might dismiss a man because he took a dislike to his 
face, and we should have no right to object against it. I 
have, therefore, taken his Majesty's pleasure for appoint- 
ing a person in the place of Mr. Moore, and it is a matter 
upon which no question can arise. But if, to go any further, 
my opinion is asked in this case, I can have no hesitation in 
saying that I think Mr. Moore has been a little hastily dealt 
with. That the mere circumstance of his sending a letter 
from Captain Home to the Governor of Rhode Island ^ did 
not merit such pointed severity. For, however offensive 
the letter might be, he sent it at the express requisition of 
Captain Home, which he could not refuse. Captain Home 
being in his Majesty's service an officer so vastly superior in 
rank to himself." "My orders were," said I, "to explain 
the reasons upon which this act of the President was 
grounded, and to observe that it was not only because Mr. 
Moore sent the insulting letter to the Governor of Rhode 
Island, but because his presence on board the Africa, at the 
time when the other outrage was committed, gave strong 
ground for suspicion that he was accessary to that. These 
reasons were deemed sufficient by the President. He trusts 
they will be so by this government ; and you may be assured 
that no trivial cause, nor any such reason as the President's 
taking a dislike to a viaii's face, would induce him to the 
removal of any one." "No, no, (said he) I was not speak- 
ing officially, and only meant, in giving you my opinion, to 
put an extreme case to show my idea of the principle." 

Respecting the other case, the same orders have been 
issued from the Admiralty, to the captain of the Hermione, 

^ Arthur Fenner (1745-1805). 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 445 

in order to know what he can say for his justification. "I 
am directed on this occasion," said I, "to urge that more 
pointed orders may be given, to prevent the repetition of 
this evil. It is a great evil, and is continually recurring. 
I may add that it is of a nature extremely calculated to 
produce irritation and resentment. It couples insult with 
Injury In a manner which naturally makes not only the suf- 
ferers, but numbers of their fellow citizens, think It intol- 
erable. The government of the United States, for these 
reasons, wish that some equitable agreement on the subject 
may put an end to complaints to which they cannot be In- 
attentive." 

He said they were very willing to make such an agreement 
as might result from a fair and candid discussion of the sub- 
ject. That he had already had, when Mr. Jay was here, 
much conversation with him upon it, and that It was then 
understood to be one of the points reserved for future con- 
sideration. The question involved In it was on both sides 
difficult. For Instance, if a sailor belonging to one of the 
king's ships stationed on the American coast, should desert 
and run away from his ship, it could not be supposed that he 
thereby changed his allegiance or acquired a right to the 
protection of the United States as an American citizen. On 
the other hand, all those who, before the war, were Inhabit- 
ants of America, and had continued to be so, wherever 
born, were doubtless to be considered as American citizens 
and entitled to protection. That between these two ex- 
treme points there was a great variety of gradations, and It 
must be a delicate thing on both sides to fix the line of de- 
marcation ; that in the particular instance of the settlers, 
etc., within the posts to be evacuated, the treaty had as- 
certained the proceedings whereby every Individual might 
make and declare his election, and he should cheerfully 



446 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

attend to any observations that might occur to me on the 
view of the subject as a general question. 

Before I proceed to a few remarks which I shall take the 
liberty to submit, suggested by this conversation, I have to 
notice a proposal of Lord Grenville's respecting the two 
important Commissions, and which escaped my recollec- 
tion, when I gave in the beginning of this letter an account 
of the agreement as to the pay of the Commissioners. He 
said that the treaty stipulated nothing as to the appointment 
of the secretaries to these Commissions. He supposed it 
would not be thought necessary to have more than one 
secretary for each of them, and it would be perhaps eligible 
that the person should not be obliged to go beyond sea. 
His offer therefore was that the Secretary of the Commission 
to sit at Philadelphia [be appointed] by the American govern- 
ment, at the same time reserving to the Commissioners in 
both instances the right of objecting to the appointment of 
any person who might be not agreeable to them. I answered 
that having no communication from the government of the 
United States on this head, I could not say what their opin- 
ions would be ; whether this arrangement would meet their 
ideas or whether they would prefer having the secretaries 
appointed as of course by the Commissioners themselves, 
but that I would transmit the suggestion he now made for 
their consideration. 

In the relation that is now before you. Sir, it has been 
endeavored to give you the substance of everything that 
was said on either side, and a verbal accuracy has been pre- 
served as far as it could be retained in memory. 

The proposal for discriminating between the Commis- 
sioners in the article of compensation left me only the al- 
ternative of consenting to the highest sums or creating a 
further delay of four or five months. It was doubtless made 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 447 

with that intention, and affords a specimen of the style of 
negotiation which it may be expected will be pursued. That 
delay^ at least as to the performance of their engagements, 
is a real object which this government have in view, may be 
collected from various concurring circumstances. As to 
the evacuation of the posts, it will be observed that the 
intention of making that depend upon what shall be done 
be Congress at their meeting respecting the treaty was 
clearly avowed, and although a belief was professed that the 
orders were already sent out, yet it is evident from the whole 
that was said on that head, taken together, either that no 
such orders have been sent, or that they are made condi- 
tional, to be executed or not according to circumstances. 
This belief of the principal Secretary of State, upon such a 
point as the present, is itself a ground of suspicion that his 
creed is not in this respect entirely conformable to his knowl- 
edge. Mr. Deas was at first expressly told that the orders 
were sent out. I was told the same thing by Mr. Hammond 
the first time of my seeing him here ; and now my Lord 
Grenville only believes them gone. 

The attempt at argument in support of the order for tak- 
ing vessels laden with provisions will be appreciated by the 
President at its proper value. It was such as made it un- 
necessary to contest the principles ; a mere denial of their 
application sufficed. The indifference and readiness with 
which such reasons are advanced may serve to show the 
degree of stress which is laid upon the reason of their conduct, 
and what proportion it bears to their conviction that it 
must in truth rest upon their sense of power. This order has 
been revoked, and will not be revived so long as the costs 
of their captures will evidently amount higher than their 
value to the captors. This circumstance supplied the prin- 
cipal or only motive for its removal ; and when it shall no 



448 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

longer exist, the expectation that any consideration of jus- 
tice, humanity, or neutral rights will prevent its revival for 
so much as an hour, would be as little warranted by present 
probability as by past experience. 

In the case of Captain Home's violence and outrage, it 
seems that a pretence for bearing him out is assumed al- 
ready, before any species of defence has been received from 
himself ; and as to that of Mr. Moore, the words underscored 
in the above relation were expressly used. The disposition 
of mind which they discover shall remain without comment 
from me, and I shall only permit myself to add, that by 
repeating distinctly some of those words, it was meant to 
show that they had not passed unnoticed, and that by saying 
no further, sensations were suppressed which, if indulged, 
would have retorted scorn for scorn. 

That Mr. Moore had thought himself hound in duty to 
send to the Governor of Rhode Island copy of a letter 
he had received, insolent and insulting to the Governor, 
because the writer of the letter had requested him so to do, had 
indeed been advanced by Mr. Moore himself ; but the reason 
assigned by Lord Grenville, as proving that such zvas his 
duty, belongs entirely to him. It Is that Captain Home was 
superior in rank to the Vice Consul : a reason to justify 
vicarious Insolence, which, however, consonant to the prac- 
tice of this country, will be considered as more than disput- 
able in the United States. 

In this conversation it will perhaps appear that the ob- 
jection against Mr. Deas for the manner in which he has 
expressed the sentiments of the American government did 
not come with much weight from a person using such lan- 
guage on his side. Mr. Deas Is doubtless equal to his own 
justification, and If the language of his memorial was warm, 
it was such as the occasion naturally suggested. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 449 

With respect to the pressing of seamen, it will be observed 
in the newspapers that notice issued yesterday from the 
Admiralty office, that directions have been given not to press 
any more men regularly protected. Whether these direc- 
tions will meet with proper execution, time alone will 
unfold. 

I am in hopes of Mr. Pinckney's return within a few days ; 
by Christmas at latest. I expect it with anxiety, being 
ardently desirous to resign into his hands a task to which I 
must take the liberty of observing that I am altogether in- 
adequate ; and a trust the extensive importance of which 
could not be fully perceived at the time when my orders to 
repair hither were transmitted. From the foregoing account 
an opinion may be formed how far the relative situation of 
the United States and this country is still critical ; and it 
would not become me to suggest what measures the interests 
and the security of the former may render advisable. That 
the disposition here is candid, harmonious, or sincere may be 
believed, if the amplest professions are to be admitted for 
substantial proof. 

I have the honor &c. 

TO LORD GRENVILLE 

London, December 9, 1795. 
My Lord : 

I have received the card which your Lordship did me the 
honor to write me yesterday ; but observing that it Is di- 
rected to me as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United 
States of America, I think it necessary to Inform your Lord- 
ship, that I am not honored with that character, and that 
the credential letter, which I have the honor to bear from the 
President of the United States to his Majesty, styles me 

2 G 



450 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

Minister Resident of the United States of America, at the 
Hague. 

If this circumstance, according to the customary usages 
of this court, be such as to preclude me from the honor of an 
audience to deliver my credential letter to his Majesty, I 
must request of your Lordship that it may be notified to 
me, as I cannot by any acquiescence or assent on my part 
admit that I am vested with the character of a Minister 
Plenipotentiary.^ 

I have the honor &c. 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
[Timothy Pickering] 

London, December 15, 1795. 



Sir : 



I now resume the subject of the intention that the Minis- 
try perhaps entertained of considering me as a Minister to 
this court. And several circumstances that occurred both 
before and after the levee convinced me that such an In- 
tention still existed.^ The next day a paragraph appeared 
in one of the ministerial papers, stating that Mr. Adams, the 
new envoy from the United States of America, had delivered 
his credentials, etc. 

I had reason to expect that a similar paragraph would 
appear in the next Gazette, and though I could not be re- 

^ See Adams, Memoirs, December 9, 1795. "When I first saw Mr. Adams (un- 
derstanding that he was empowered to negotiate with this country during Mr. 
Pinckney's absence) I offered him any assistance which I could give; but, to my 
great surprise, he told me that he was here merely as a private individual. A day 
or two afterwards. Lord Grenville gave me very different information." Gouverneur 
Morris to IVashington, December 19, 1795. 

* See Adams, Memoirs, December 11, 1795. 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 451 

sponsible for their acts or pretensions, I did not mean they 
should ever have a pretence to make a point of the thing on 
the ground of a misapprehension. I went therefore to Mr. 
Hammond, and clearly stated to him, that I am not to be 
considered as a Minister of the United States to this court, 
observing that from the first moment of my arrival to the 
present I had expressed myself in the most explicit manner 
on this point, both to Lord Grenville and to himself. The 
paragraph has, of course, not yet appeared in the Gazette. 
It had, however, already been sent for insertion, stating 
that I had delivered credentials as Minister Resident of 
the United States. Mr. Hammond, on my conversing with 
him, endeavored to frame the paragraph in a different man- 
ner so as to meet my ideas ; but I did not think proper to 
take on me any responsibility whatever by approbation of 
a thing over which I have no control. I told him that I was 
answerable for my conduct as it concerns my own country; 
but could not be so for any insertion in the Gazettes made by 
authority of this government. 

In consequence of this discussion, Mr. Hammond found it 
necessary, or thought proper at length, to say that, "to be 
sure my credential letter was completely informal.'^ To this 
I made no answer, but his idea of its informality I take to 
arise from their maxim that the King of Great Britain will 
not admit a foreigner in the character of a Minister to another 
government than his own. To the accuracy of this principle, 
I must confess, I see no reasonable objection, and on that 
account I had not on my arrival any idea of a formal audi- 
ence. When it was intimated to me by Lord Grenville that 
this would be necessary in point of form, I acquiesced, be- 
cause I conceived that on the article of forms here it was not 
my business to contend with them, and if they chose to over- 
leap or evade the principle above mentioned, it was at their 



452 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

own peril, and not a concern of mine. The principle that 
if a. Prince does admit a foreign Minister, it can only be in the 
character attributed to him in his credentials, was a full 
security to us, as I concluded, against any inference of sub- 
stance that they might wish to draw from a mere ceremonial 
parade. 

It has, therefore, now become certain that, by their custom- 
ary forms, my audience was not only unnecessary but in- 
admissible. Mr. Hammond suggested to me that the ob- 
jection had not been made because it had escaped their 
notice, and observed that in the multiplicity of their business 
it was impossible they should attend to everything. The 
observation may be true ; but can the oversight be credited 
after my notice given to Lord Grenville that I had no com- 
mission to this court, and after the very explicit declaration 
contained in my letter to him, the copy of which is inclosed. 

It seems much more probable that it was an express design 
of Mr. Hammond himself by means of this audience to con- 
strue me into a Minister to this court. And this design ap- 
pears to have been so important in his mind, that to effect 
its execution he did not hesitate to return me in Lord Gren- 
ville's name such an answer as that, the copy of which is in- 
closed. 

Negotiation in the system of these people seems to con- 
sist only in the art of reducing to a dilemma. One instance 
has been given in a former letter. In the present case, I 
was placed, not unskilfully, in that of declining a custom- 
ary form. I chose to deliver my letter, taking care to 
show them distinctly that I meant to keep the form separate 
from any false inference they might choose to draw from it. 

But although I have endeavored with all the caution of 
which I was capable to avoid a snare, if it was laid, I am not 
yet without concern lest some use may be designed to be 



I79SI JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 453 

made of my conduct, of which I am not aware. Time alone 
can discover what Mr. Hammond's motive could be for such 
a manoeuvre as this. That he had a motive, and a strong 
one, cannot well be doubted, for such a practice could not be 
recommended by the mere pleasure of employing it. 

After reflecting in the most serious manner upon it, I can 
only conjecture that the object is to procure a certain pre- 
text upon a future occasion. I trust, however, that if it 
should be attempted to be raised, it will be found necessary 
to abandon it ; and, indeed, had not my opinion been such, I 
should have peremptorily refused to deliver my credential 
letter, even at the risk of what was brought so pointedly 
before me. Whether my conjecture be well founded or not, 
a short time will, I hope, ascertain, and the result will of 
course be made known to you. 

I have the honor &c. 



TO SYLVANUS BOURNE 

London, December 16, 1795. 
My Dear Sir : 

The President has not resigned, but there appears to be a 
most violent attack carried on against him, the object of 
which is probably to induce his resignation, or his removal 
at the next election. In this country the same people who 
derived so much pleasure from the Western Insurrection of 
the last year, take an equal satisfaction in this circumstance. 
They seem to anticipate with delight the fall of a man, who 
has hitherto been the boast of Republicans. Time will 
show, whether in this instance, as in the former, these exult- 
ers have not purchased the skin before the chase was killed. 

But Mr. Randolph has resigned, and as to the origin of 
his resignation there are, as usual, two stories. His friends 



454 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

say that it was only certain indiscreet communications be- 
tween him and the French Minister Fauchet/ and they very 
much blame the President for having made an eclat of a 
thing, which they think ought to have been overlooked or 
arranged without noise. 

They further threaten very hard, that Mr. Randolph, to 
vindicate himself, will divulge some dreadful secrets as to 
the English party among us, and if there be such secrets I 
hope he will. It is time that the people of America should 
know who are their true friends, and who only the tools of 
foreign powers. 

The matter is yet unsettled, but is in every respect a thing 
to be regretted. But it gives great pleasure to our (not 
friends) in England. . . . 



TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
[Timothy Pickering] 

London, December 19, 1795. 
Sir : 

I return to the conversation of which it was my purpose 
to give you the relation.^ The first point started was that 
of alienage, residence, and domicility, which recurs in various 
forms in many of the cases now in the courts. Lord Gren- 
ville said that a statement was preparing taking up the sub- 
ject in all its different points of view, which might lead to a 
settlement of the principles on which an agreement may be 
made, in which case a retrospective operation may be given 
to it so far as will be practicable, to guide the decisions in the 
causes now pending that involve the question ; and he said 

^ Jean-Antoine-Joseph Fauchet (1761-1834). 
' Adams had met Lord Grcnvillc on the i6th. 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 455 

he would send me this statement in the course of a few days 
for consideration. 

The questions relative to the trade in American vessels 
with the French West India Islands, and from them to France 
and to other parts of Europe, were then noticed. He said 
that the Lords of Appeal had been and were still sincerely 
desirous to avoid the necessity of establishing any new prin- 
ciples of decision that might bear the appearance of harsh- 
ness towards neutral trade ; but had uniformly endeavored 
to govern their decrees conformably to rules practised upon 
in the course of former wars. That a trade opened by an 
enemy in favor of neutral navigation, flagrante hello, and 
contrary to the permanent system pursued by that enemy 
in time of peace, had, therefore, been viewed as inadmissible ; 
as a mere evasion for the purpose of giving protection to 
hostile property, and so far as the principle of former de- 
cisions on this head would apply to the present cases, the 
Lords Commissioners would probably be governed by them. 
He then mentioned the case of the Dutch ships that occurred 
in the year 1758, and said he had a report concerning them 
made by persons of the highest judicial authority in this 
country, namely the late Lord Mansfield, Sir Dudley Ryder 
and Doctor Charles Hay.^ 

I I observed that not having seen that report, I had not an 
opportunity to remark upon the doctrines it might contain; 

' but with respect to the case of the Dutch ships, admitting 
in the first place that it was parallel to that of our trade on 

! the present occasion, the Americans might inquire, whether 
that nation were satisfied with the determinations in the 
Admiralty Courts of this country, and cheerfully acquiesced 
in the principles upon which the proceedings here were 

1 The "rule of the War of 1756." See Moore, Digest of International Law, VII. 
383. 



456 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

founded. That if the fact was otherwise, and strong re- 
monstrances were made by the Dutch government at that 
time against those proceedings, we might rather conclude 
it was not a point generally admitted as the settled law of 
nations. That the opinions of the British lawyers and judges 
in such an instance, however respectable, could be allowed as 
authorities only so far as they might show the opinion of a 
single nation, of a nation that was a party in the question, 
and whose judgment would therefore be more liable to a 
scruple than it would be in the case of a principle, which 
should have had the sanction of similar opinions in other 
countries. 

He admitted in some measure the distinction, but said that 
the final acquiescence of the Dutch in the case alluded to 
appeared from the fact of its having produced no eventual 
difference between the two nations, and that as there was 
no common judge among sovereigns, every nation must con- 
sider its own decisions as authorities. 

I then said that we thought there was a very material dis- 
tinction between the two cases. That from such a knowl- 
edge as we had obtained of the transactions concerning the 
Dutch ships, we conceived the principle upon which they 
were held liable to condemnation, rested on the idea that 
they were adopted as French, for the purpose of covering 
French property, that they navigated by special licenses 
and were on no other ground admitted into the French colo- 
nies, insomuch that every Dutch vessel, not provided with 
such special license, was liable to the exclusions of the per- 
manent French colonial system of that time, and on attempt- 
ing to trade with the French colonies would have been 
subjected to the common condemnation of a prohibited 
commerce. That in our case, a general, permanent and 
unlimited decree, proceeding from the supreme authority of 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 457 

the French nation, had permitted our intercourse with their 
colonies : ^ that our merchants had in consequence pursued 
the trade upon their own capitals, on their own account and 
risk, and there could, therefore, not be the same ground for 
presuming the sole intention of covering the property of 
parties to the war. 

He said that the general nature of the decree would not in 
his opinion create a material difference, if as seemed evident 
from its date, it was adopted with an immediate view of the 
state of war into which the nation had just entered, and in- 
tended manifestly to obviate the distress which that state 
would naturally produce: "but I presume (he added) that 
the counsel for the American claims involving these ques- 
tions will be instructed to urge this distinction before the 
Lords of Appeal " : and on my answering that they doubtless 
would be, he said, that if it was found to be just, he believed 
it would have its proper weight on the minds of the Com- 
missioners. 

The question as to the extent of places besieged or block- 
aded was noticed, but not much dwelt upon. I stated our 
idea that it is by the law of nations limited to such places as 
may be surrounded in such a manner as to prevent the intro- 
duction of all supplies. He doubted whether the principle 
could be admitted in such a latitude, but appeared to be of 
opinion, that there would be no occasion at least for an im- 
mediate discussion of this article.^ 

A decision had already taken place at the last session of 
the Commissioners concerning property shipped in Ameri- 
can names, but previously contracted for as French property 
and to become such at the moment of landing. The prop- 

^ The decree of March 26, 1793. See American State Papers, Foreign Relations, 
I. 363. 

* See Moore, Digest of International Law, VII. 788, 797. 



458 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

erty was condemned, and, Indeed, Lord Grenville appeared 
to think there was very little weight in the arguments I 
urged in support of claims resting on that foundation. I 
said that even by the common law, a transfer of property was 
held to be completed only by the delivery of the article, and 
that where the shipment is on neutral account and risk, the 
loss in case of capture must fall upon the neutral owner 
too : but he said that in such circumstances the intention 
to cover the property appears so manifest, that he believed 
no impartial arbitrator would think it entitled to protection. 
I had been informed by Mr. Bayard that in one of the late 
causes, a question had been started by one of the Lords Com- 
missioners, whether potash is not to be considered In future 
as an article of contraband. I told his lordship that I felt 
It Incumbent to take the earliest moment to be explicit on 
this subject. That the article was so important in the list 
of exports from the United States, that their Interest would 
be most essentially Injured by the assumption of such a prin- 
ciple, and I could see no possible ground upon which the pre- 
tension could be raised. He said that the occasion from 
whence the question arose was known to me : It was the use 
that had recently been made of this article for the fabrica- 
tion of gunpowder. That the principle upon which all the 
modern treaties had defined the specific articles to be held as 
contraband, was the use which may be made of such mate- 
rials for the purposes of war. That saltpetre itself had not 
been In the class of contraband before the use of gunpowder 
was discovered, and that it was perfectly equitable and con- 
formable to the law of nations, that if in process of time any 
article should be made subservient to warlike employment 
which has not been previously thus used, It should be con- 
sidered as having lost Its character of innocence, and be in- 
volved In the proscription of contraband. I replied that If 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 459 

it be even admitted, then an article unquestionably free 
may by a new application of It to warlike uses assume the 
dubious character of a mixed article, that could not surely 
authorize a single nation, without the concurrent assent of 
others, to place It upon the list of contraband : and having 
said thus much I should only add, that his Lordship had 
signed the treaty long after the new use of potash in France 
had been made and was universally notorious ; and yet It 
was not mentioned in the treaty among the contraband 
articles. He said this last observation was certainly con- 
clusive as far as relates to the United States. 

One more observation relative to the Lords of Appeal will 
conclude the topics embraced In this conversation on their 
subject. I said that these claims had become an object so 
highly interesting to the people of the United States, that I 
could have wished they might have fairly laid before them the 
special point of every decision, particularly of those which 
might be unexpected to them, or variant from their interests. 
In such a case, if it were shown to their conviction, that the 
determination was supported by the admitted laws of na- 
tions, I had not a doubt but they would freely and cheer- 
fully acquiesce. That I could not, therefore, but regret 
that the decrees of the Commissioners were frequently 
founded upon the special circumstances of the case, because 
the point of decision is thereby left uncertain, and we have 
no opportunity to discuss it, or to receive proper satis- 
faction of its justice. He admitted that it was desirable the 
point should appear as much as possible, but said that in 
these cases the law, the fact and the evidence were so blended, 
and became often so necessarily complicated, as made it im- 
possible to reduce the determination to any single point, or 
to form it otherwise than upon the special circumstances of 
the case. 



46o THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

He afterwards mentioned the proposed agreement for 
the settlement of the minor cases b^ an arbitration. But I 
think best to leave this matter in its present state until Mr. 
Pinckney returns. Mr. Bayard states the original idea to 
have been of a sort of compromise, and between that and an 
arbitration to which Lord Grenville pertinaciously adheres, 
the difference is too great for me to give my assent to the 
alteration without instructions for my warrant. As Mr. 
Pinckney will be here in the course of a week or ten days at 
farthest, this delay can operate no material injury. 

I repeated the request for a written minute of the agree- 
ment we had come to, concerning the pay of the Commis- 
sioners, and was told it should certainly be sent me shortly. 

It is perhaps unnecessary for me to add many obser- 
vations upon the substance of the above-related conver- 
sation. But as the mere statement may possibly have a 
tendency to raise expectations which may not be realized, 
I find myself obliged to say, that I have not the confidence 
in the general policy of this cabinet, or in the particular dis- 
positions of any one member of it, that would lead me to any 
strong reliance upon mere verbal declarations : much less 
that would permit me to draw any inferences from them. 
The manner of Lord Grenville at this time was as apparently 
candid and favorable as the substance of what he said ; but 
the effects alone are the proper grounds of dependence. If 
it be true that the Lords of Appeal will not extend any un- 
friendly principle beyond the clear doctrines of former prec- 
edent ; if it be true that the manifest distinction between 
our West India trade during this war, and the case of the 
Dutch ships in 1758 will have its proper weight on their 
minds ; if it be true that there will be no occasion to discuss 
the question as to the extent of places besieged or blockaded, 
we may expect a much more liberal measure of justice from 



1795) JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 461 

the decrees in which these points will be involved, than my 
belief will warrant. As to the doubt raised upon the nature 
of potash, the treaty certainly disposes of that, and indeed if 
it did not, the pretension of adding to the list of contraband 
by the authority of this nation alone is so absurd, that in any 
other than a British maritime court, I cannot conceive it 
would be seriously made. 

As to the question of the domicile, nothing has yet been 
said upon which a conclusion might fairly be drawn. A can- 
did disposition to agree upon the subject in an equitable 
manner is professed, and as it is reserved for further dis- 
cussion it will of course be noticed in future communications.^ 

I have the honor &c. 

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING 

London, December 22, 1795. 

Private. 

Sir : 

• •••••• 

One of the favorite objects of this government is an in- 
crease of the dominions in the East and West Indies. A 
formidable expedition with 25,000 troops has recently sailed 
for the latter, but has already met with two gales of wind 
extremely violent, which have damaged many of the vessels, 
and reduced considerably the numbers of men that go to- 
gether. It has also been delayed in its departure at least 
three months later than was intended. It appears to be the 
general opinion here that it must inevitably succeed, that 
its force will be irresistible, and the whole island of St. 

* In urging that instructions be sent to Pinckney, Washington wrote to Pickering, 
March 6, 1796: "Mr. Adams' letter, and Lord Grenville's propositions, relative to 
captured vessels of a certain description, and with respect to the pay of the commis- 
sioners, require immediate attention." Writings of JVashinglon (Ford), XIII. 175. 



462 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

Domingo Is already In possession of this country by antici- 
pation. Yet If It should fall, Englishmen may remember 
that It will not be the first Instance of an Invincible armada 
defeated, and considering the climate to which they are 
going the loss of three months of the season may be con- 
sidered as equivalent to the loss of half of their men. 

That they may succeed Is not I think to be wished by 
Americans. For, Sir, It appears more and more clear that 
the real and ultimate object of this government In their 
present war. Is to establish the commercial and maritime 
supremacy of the nation over the ruins of those of France. 
They have hitherto been so far successful In this project, 
that they are encouraged vigorously to pursue It, and If they 
can terminate the war by obtaining possession of Corsica, 
of the Cape of Good Hope, and of Martlnico, with their own 
navy greatly Increased, and that of France equally reduced, 
they will have gone very far towards securing their purpose. 
It Is intimated by the ministerial partisans that little hesi- 
tation will be made here at giving up the Austrian Nether- 
lands, and even the cause of the Stadtholder In the United 
Provinces, provided an Indemnity shall be given to this coun- 
try by an accession to Its transmarine possessions. I have 
very little doubt of the fact, because the sacrifice of allies 
and the abandonment of solemn previous stipulations, would 
operate only as a removal of the mask, as soon as the purpose 
for which it was taken has been secured. 

It is not merely from views of commercial aggrandize- 
ment, however, that the posesslon of the French Islands In 
the West Indies is held as an object of the first magnitude 
in this country. It enters Into all their calculations relative 
to the United States. It forms a part of their defensive 
system, and they believe that their commercial existence 
depends in some measure upon the event. This may serve 



17951 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 463 

as a clue to the extreme anxiety which they have uniformly 
discovered since the commencement of this war to exclude 
the Americans not only from their own, but from all the 
foreign islands. It explains the orders of the 6th of No- 
vember, 1793. It accounts for their obstinate adherence to 
that clause in the 12th article of the late treaty, which has 
been suspended. It is the key to that singular principle 
which they are now determined on their single authority to 
establish as the settled law of nations, that no other than the 
customary peace trade can be allowed to neutral nations, by 
a belligerent party in time of war. Anything that shall 
serve as a barrier between the United States and the West 
Indies will be attempted by them, and in addition to all 
their other grounds of alarm, they are now apprehensive 
that if France should retain her islands at the peace, she will 
be compelled, by her own want of navigation, to leave the 
intercourse between them and the United States as free to 
the latter as it has been since this war, and that she will be 
unable to resume the exclusive system at least for several 
years. The genius of the navigation act shudders at the 
prospect, and will think thousands of mere human lives, and 
millions of treasure, most profitably spent in preventing the 
reality. 

But, as Mr. Hammond says, it is impossible for them to 
think of everything, and they sometimes find themselves 
obliged to yield to an irresistible course of events. I am 
sensible how dangerous a thing it is to deliver an opinion 
upon future occurrences, else I would venture to foretell 
that whatever commercial negotiations may at any time be 
carried on between the United States and Britain, what- 
ever is given by the latter will be extorted by the necessity 
of the times, and nothing will be conceded to any liberality 
of system. There is no such thing as commercial liberality 



464 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

in the country. To engross the commerce of the world to 
themselves is the professed or secret wish of every heart 
among them, and if there are a very small number who be- 
lieve that the prosperity of other nations would rather ad- 
vance than prejudice their own, the effect of this opinion 
is destroyed by the political consideration that their views 
would not be secured by their own positive advantage, with- 
out a correspondent negative for all other nations. The 
character of the former supposition is equality, but all 
their ideas run towards their superiority. 

It is, therefore, a circumstance very remarkable that at 
this time there is before the Privy Council a proposal for 
admitting into the ports of this country the produce of 
foreign West India Islands, in neutral vessels — rum, sugar, 
coifee and cocoa, for re-exportation, and cotton and molasses 
for consumption here. The merchants appear to be of 
opinion that this will soon be permitted by proclamation, 
and if so the present would certainly be a favorable moment 
to us for negotiation upon this subject. But what has in- 
duced them to be prepared for a regulation so different from 
the spirit of the condition to the 12th article of the treaty .'' 
It is because their adherence to their own system has driven 
the Americans into another course of trade, from which it 
has not been practicable to exclude them : because that other 
course of trade not only tends to carry their custom else- 
where, but to give them the means and opportunity of tracing 
new channels for their commerce : because the merchants of 
this country are losing their American commissions, and 
ten per cent of profit upon the whole balance of the trade in 
the rate of exchange; in short, because their own apparent 
interest forces them to an indulgence equally adverse to 
their feelings and their principles. But if they can obtain 
possession of the French Islands, then the old maxims of 



i79sl JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 465 

exclusion will be revived in all their force, and instead of 
resigning themselves to a mere participation of our profits, 
they will boldly resume the purpose of intercepting them 
from us. 

The scarcity of grain has still an appearance so alarming, 
that the Parliament besides many regulations to reduce the 
consumption have also encouraged its importation by a bounty 
upon wheat, and upon Indian corn. It was at first pro- 
posed to make a distinction, so as to give a larger bounty on 
the importations from the Mediterranean, than on those 
from America ; but they were finally put upon the same 
footing. The wants of Europe during the ensuing year will 
undoubtedly turn to the benefit of the United States as much 
as they have ever yet done, but on their part they must not 
suff"er their patience to be yet exhausted. The American 
will infallibly triumph over the European system eventually, 
provided it be pursued with as much perseverance. But an 
hour of haste or resentment indulged in at the present mo- 
ment would take the advantage which it now possesses from 
its hand, and throw the scale of probable success on this side 
of the water. 

All my letters to you, Sir, public and private, have de- 
livered my sentiments with a freedom which perhaps needs 
an apology, and which certainly nothing but an unlimited 
confidence can reconcile with personal prudence. A sense 
of duty it is hoped will be admitted at least as my excuse, and 
if my opinions are in any instance warped by prejudice, I 
am persuaded that your discernment will distinguish, and 
hope your candor will overlook them. I remain, etc. 



2H 



466 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

TO SYLVANUS BOURNE 

London, December 24, 1795. 
My Dear Sir : 

Mr. Johnson sent me a few days ago your favor of the 
1st instant, inclosing the letter of Mr. Roos. I shall accord- 
ingly procure for him a copying press, with a considerable 
quantity of the paper and ink-powder. The directions for 
making the ink and for using the press are both in French 
and English, and must be attentively observed. I shall 
perhaps bring the press over with me, as I expect to return 
in the course of a few weeks. If, however, an earlier op- 
portunity to send it shall offer, I will embrace it. 

The most recent accounts from America contain the usual 
mixture of sweet and bitter, but with more than an ordinary 
quantity of both ingredients. The attack upon the Presi- 
dent is still carried on with that virulence and brutality 
which have uniformly been characteristic of an American 
party mingling with a foreign influence. Mr. Randolph, I 
suppose, means to come forward with his publication at the 
moment when Congress shall meet. The depredations by 
the Bermuda privateers continue to irritate and fester the 
public mind, and the present session of the national legis- 
lature will doubtless produce great heats, and perhaps ani- 
mosities ; though I hope not any dangerous divisions. 

It is not a little remarkable that this is the critical situa- 
tion of our country at a moment when the national prosperity 
continues to grow with a luxuriance of which the annals 
of the world give no example. One would think our people 
determined to dash the cup of happiness from their own lips, 
merely because it overflows. To give you an instance of 
our commercial state, a Boston newspaper of October 14, 
states that within the month preceding that date, one hun- 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 467 

dred sail of vessels had entered there from foreign ports. 
It is said here to be unquestionable, that the exports from 
the United States during the year ending September 30, 
1795, amounted to more than thirty-five millions of dollars. 
When we recollect that at the same date only four years 
before, one half of this sum was considered as the proof of 
some extraordinary cause, which would not be supported 
to an equal extent during the years subsequent, is it possible 
to avoid the reflection, that the American government, and 
the President In particular, do not meet with that retri- 
bution which has been richly deserved ? At the present mo- 
ment if our neutrality be still preserved, it will be due to the 
President alone. Nothing but his weight of character and 
reputation, combined with his firmness and political in- 
trepidity, could have stood against the torrent that is still 
tumbling with a fury that resounds even across the Atlantic. 
He is now pledged, and he is unmoved. If his system of ad- 
ministration now prevails, ten years more will place the 
United States among the most powerful and opulent nations 
on earth. If he fails, though the Demon of Discord may 
raise a cloud of prejudice and obloquy around the splendor 
of his fame for the present moment, It will only serve to add 
a brighter radiance to his future glory. Yet I deprecate this 
event because the value of his administration will In that 
case be proved by the deprivation of the blessings It has 
secured to his country. 

This, my good friend, Is not the language of a courtier. 
You and I have known the time when not to applaud the man 
who united all hearts was almost held to be a crime. Should 
that time return again while he lives, my tribute of venera- 
tion and gratitude shall again remain silent in my heart. 
But now, when he does not unite all hearts, when on the con- 
trary a powerful party at home, and a mighty Influence from 



468 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

abroad, are joining all their forces to assail his reputation 
and his character, I think it my duty as an American to 
avow my sentiments as they concern that man. 

You know, I suppose, that in the course of the last sum- 
mer a peace was concluded with all the western Indians. 
The last papers mention the receipt of official news of the 
peace with the Algerines.^ In addition to these may be 
reckoned the successful issue of Mr. Pinckney's negotiation 
in Spain. ^ In this country a relaxation from the rigor of 
their navigation laws has already become inevitable, if they 
remain at war, and we at peace. Here are objects secured 
by our neutrality, and by that alone. Compare them with 
the most advantageous issue that a war might by any possi- 
bility have had, and tell me what you think of those who still 
hesitate about the choice ? Though by the way, I suspect 
the Algerine peace is to be abused, and we are to be told it 
might have been had upon infinitely better terms. 

There is another pretty story current, arising from the 
same source, but which it is to be feared will now lose its 
use. It is, that when France and Spain were negotiating 
their late peace, one of the articles insisted on by the former 
was navigation of the Mississippi for us. But upon Mr. 
Pinckney's going through Paris without communicating to 
the French government Mr. Jay's treaty, the Committee of 
Public Safety immediately sent orders to Barthelemy to 
give up that point. I have this account as coming from the 
express knowledge of Mr. Monroe.^ Had Mr. Pinckney failed, 

^ Concluded September 5, 1795, by Joseph Donaldson, Jr., on the part of the 
United States. The text is in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, I. 530. 

- Taking form in the treaty of October 27, 1795, which reached the United States 
February 22, 1796, and was ratified by a unanimous vote of the Senate. 

' Monroe to Madison, September 8, 1795, in Writings of James Monroe, II. 355. 
Pinckney did not ask the interference of France, because he knew the displeasure 
felt by the treaty with England. Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II. 82. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 469 

what a charming anecdote this was to make the treaty with 
Britain odious, and to give a lift to the influence of France. 
But alas ! when the generous bounty of the Committee 
was withdrawn, it seems the United States could obtain the 
same thing on their own account. But perhaps, indeed, the 
talc will be worth keeping up, to show what France would 
have done for us, if we had been good children. 

It is on this ground that the treaty with Algiers is to be 
blamed. I know nothing of the circumstances attending 
that negotiation ; but I perceive that a great deal of credit 
is meant to be given to the French government for what they 
would have done for us in that matter, if time had been given 
them, and, therefore, I conclude they had little or no hand 
in what was done.^ 

That the Americans now in France should love the French 
nation and admire the French Republic, is natural and ra- 
tional. They are a most amiable people. Few Americans 
have had an opportunity to be more acquainted with what 
they formerly were than I have, and if I do not look on them 
as the first people on the face of the globe, it is only because 
/ have a country. The American people are under obliga- 
tions to France. I acknowledge them and would have them 
repaid with honor and generosity : nor can I dissent from the 
feelings of gratitude which actuate so strongly our country- 
men in France on that account. But if there are Americans 
who have considered speculation in the funds of the United 
States as almost a disqualification for political opinions, and 
those very Americans have speculated In the funds of the 
French Revolution, I think it would become them to be 

^The French consul was originally concerned in the negotiation, and Hum- 
phreys was directed to obtain the cooperation of the French government. The 
event was largely due, however, to the aid of a Swede, Pierre Eric Skjoldebrand, 
who was associated with Donaldson. 



470 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

moderate In their panegyrics, or expect that their opinions 
will be taken with a grain of allowance. 

• • • • • 

I remain &c 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, December 29, 1795. 



My Dear Sir 



When I say I hope to be relieved from my present situa- 
tion in a few days, I wish not to have my motives misunder- 
stood. In my letter from Helvoetsluys you will find that 
I came over here not unaware of what my business might 
draw upon myself, and when you advise me to be of good 
cheer and courage, it must be from a consideration of the 
thing in a similar perspective. But I should be a wretched 
servant of my country indeed, if I were capable of shrink- 
ing from the performance of a public service, because it may 
be disagreeable or even dangerous. When I am clearly con- 
vinced that my duty commands me to act, If the love of ease, 
or the love of life, or the love of fame itself, dear as It is, could 
arrest my hand, or give me a moment's hesitation in the 
choice, I should certainly be fit for no situation of public 
trust whatever. This principle is a moral obligation upon 
every man In office, and I hope not to be considered as des- 
titute of it. "Universal reproach" is indeed "far worse to 
bear than violence"; but I am fully sensible that It must 
never Interfere with the dictates of one's own mind for the 
regulation of his conduct. 

So much for the principle. But I may go a little further. 
The struggle against a popular clamor is not without Its 
charms In my mind. Nothing great or valuable among men 
was ever achieved without the counterpoise of strong op- 



I79S] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 47i 

position, and the persecution, that proceeds from opinion 
becomes itself a title to esteem, when the opinion is found to 
have been erroneous. There are, indeed, situations in which 
no service can be rendered, without the assistance and support 
of popularity ; but there are others in which it can be of no 
public advantage, and in that case popular opposition Is 
nothing more than a danger to defy, or a difficulty to over- 
come. To say that the danger may prove fatal, or the diffi- 
culty Insuperable, is no more than to say that a soldier 
marching to battle may leave his life upon the field. 

It is not therefore the dread of newspaper scurrility or of 
a burning effigy that Is irksome to me at the present moment, 
or that induces a wish to be relieved from the execution of 
the business for which I was ordered hither. It is another 
thing which was equally within my expectation before I 
came from Holland, but which I have found to a greater 
extent than I imagined. It is that all commercial negotia- 
tion on the part of this country will be captious and illiberal. 
That nothing will be conceded but to necessity, and every- 
thing will be obtained that artifice or cajolery can pilfer, or 
that insolence under all the forms of courtly politeness can 
extort. I have been accustomed all my life to plain dealing 
and candor, and am not sufficiently versed in the art of politi- 
cal swindling to be prepared for negotiating with an Euro- 
pean Minister of State. In other words, besides numerous 
other deficiencies of which on this occasion I am strongly 
sensible, I have not the experience which the proper per- 
formance of the duty would require. It is not my intention 
to be abusive, or to call things by harder names than they 
deserve ; but my correspondence with the Secretary of 
State will shew to demonstration what sort of negotiators 
I have found here. 

Lord Grenville is extremely plausible, and has the art of 



472 THE WRITINGS OF [179s 

simplicity to an eminent degree. If I am not misinformed 
he affects the reputation of having a word upon which de- 
pendence may be placed. But I have no reason to believe 
in his candor or his sincerity. Mr. Hammond is an under 
Secretary of State in his office. He is only cunning, and 
though he may thereby successfully practise an imposition, 
he is too easily seen through to obtain the confidence neces- 
sary for thorough-paced intrigue.^ 

Between them both they have partially executed a hope- 
ful project upon me, the only result of which hitherto has been 
to place me in an awkward and ridiculous situation, but 
which might have led me into very improper conduct, and 
such as might even have drawn at least a color of censure 
upon the American government itself. The ultimate ob- 
ject of this manoeuvre has not yet been unfolded, though I 
think I know what it is. It will perhaps never be worth my 
pains to write, or yours to read, a tedious detail of a trans- 
action, insignificant in itself, and to which circumstances 
only may give importance. Should that prove the case, you 
shall have the story at full length. At present I shall only 
say that It suited their purposes to convert me into a minis- 
ter to this Court, and that they have persevered in this 
intention with such a supple obstinacy, that one of my prin- 
cipal cares has been to disclaim the proff"ered acknowledg- 

^ "I have reason to believe that the anxiety and perseverance with which the 
design was pursued on my arrival here, of recognizing me in a character to which I 
had neither right nor pretensions, was for the purpose of fixing me as the negotiator 
for the remainder of the treaty, to the exclusion of Mr. Pinckney. Indeed, in the 
course of the discussions which were produced by my resistance against that design, 
Mr. Hammond very intelligibly intimated to me, that this government considered 
it as a sort of engagement on the part of the American government, that this nego- 
tiation was to be conducted by me, and he expressed in terms not very equivocal 
an idea that Mr. Pinckney was viewed here as unfriendly to this government, and 
that they should have a decided preference for treating with me, rather than with 
him." To the Secretary of State, January 20, 1796. Ms. 



1795] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 473 

ment of a rank to which I have no title, and to avoid every 
act that could make me accessary to an usurpation of char- 
acter. The determination on my part has been pursued 
with the utmost candor and frankness. On theirs they have 
neither been ingenuous to avow their design, nor compliant 
to abandon it. 

But in this singular contest, while they are so liberal of 
their acknowledgments and I am obliged to persist in declin- 
ing them, the result of the whole matter is that I am not 
in my proper place. This conclusion, combining with the 
species of negotiation that I should expect from those who 
have already given me such specimens, leads me to the wish 
of having nothing more to do with them, and of being re- 
lieved from a situation of personal embarrassment to my- 
self, and of little or no probable utility to the public. 

Mr. Pinckney Is hourly expected to return, and his ex- 
perience and character, as well as his talents, are much better 
adapted to treat with men to whom action is an ambush 
and thought a strategem, than I am.^ As to the subject of 
negotiation, you know that the point of the twelfth article 
of the late treaty touches the ark of their navigation system, 
and you may judge from thence what a disposition they will 
have to be liberal on that score. After they have been to the 
I very verge of a war with the United States by their en- 
deavors to exclude the Americans from the French islands, 
it is hardly to be supposed that they will readily give us access 
to their own. But at present their own interest so loudly 
calls on them for a relaxation of their navigation laws, that 
they now find themselves obliged to submit to it in a degree, 
and possibly they may be more inclined towards an agree- 

1 Pinckney arrived in London, January 13, 1796, returning from his mission to 
Spain. He had written to Washington, October 10, 1795, asking to be released 
from office in June, 1796. 



474 THE WRITINGS OF [1795 

ment advantageous to our interests than they have been 
hitherto. Of this however I can say nothing positive not 
having had any conversation with them from which any 
inference can be drawn. 

The principle upon which they meant to have carried 
through the 6th of November [1793] orders, is that a belHg- 
erent power is under no obHgation to allow any trade be- 
tween a neutral nation and the other belligerent than the 
customary peace trade. This rule they have endeavored 
in former wars to establish, and they have not yet aban- 
doned it. I had not long since a conversation with one of 
their eminent professional men on the subject. He endeav- 
ored to convince me that the maxim is highly favorable to 
the permanent national interest of the United States. 
"Separate yourselves" said he "from the mere temporary 
consideration of present circumstances. You are a com- 
mercial nation, and the only powers with whom you will be 
liable to be engaged in war are those that have possessions in 
the West Indies. There is the part in which you may ex- 
pect to find them most vulnerable. But if you admit the 
principle that at the moment when you may be involved in 
such a war your antagonist may open to neutral nations, a 
trade which in time of peace he always reserves exclusively 
to himself, you disarm yourselves of the most efficacious 
weapon you have." I told him that the Americans chose 
rather to admit the Law of Nations as it is, than to aim at 
the settlement of principles which might be favorable to their 
particular interest ; and further that they did not wish to sup- 
pose a state of war between themselves and any other nation, 
as it was their desire to remain at peace with all the world. 

I am in anxious expectation of the accounts from Amer- 
ica since the meeting of Congress. There is every reason to 



1705] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 475 

apprehend that the session will be a period of political 
warmth, if not of animosity. The direct and formal attack 
upon the President, which has been carried on in the usual 
style, and which is noticed in your letter, was not unexpected 
to me, and I think you must have received very soon after 
the date of yours a letter from me written at the Hague in 
July or August, containing the opinions I had then formed 
on that head. That the systematic course of abuse pointed 
against him, and which was arranged in Europe before it was 
put in execution in America, is connected with the scheme for 
dividing the American executive, is perhaps nothing more 
than a conjecture on my part ; but I have little doubt, that it 
was merely preparatory for the purpose of bringing forward 
in due time a change of men or of government in our country. 
It is however proper for me on this occasion to observe, 
that I believe there are two different branches of the system, 
which plays with so much efficacy across the Atlantic upon 
the passions and upon the opinions of the American people. 
One of these branches is not hostile to the real interest of 
the United States, or at least it is much less so than the 
other. The attack proceeded from the most unfriendly 
quarter, and if it had the acquiescence of the other, as an 
experiment it had not their approbation ; and if it should 
fail of success, it is not improbable but the trial of honey will 
be substituted for that of vinegar. Excuse this trivial 
image. I can mean nothing ludicrous in speaking upon such 
a subject ; it conveys merely my idea of their intentions, and 
I would not have used it, if I could venture to be more 
explicit. 

I am &c.^ 

1 "The newspapers sent herewith contain intelligence of two important events. 
The armistice concluded between the French and Austrian armies on the Rhine, 
and the return into port of the famous West India expedition. It remains as yet 



476 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, February 10, 1796. 

• ••••• • 

Mr. Randolph's pamphlet ^ had arrived before Mr. Hall, 
but I had seen only some extracts from it, which were and 
yet are dealt out in some of the daily papers here. I think 
he rolls the stone of Sisyphus with a more impetuous recoil 
than I ever witnessed before. I confess I should never 
have thought that even the delirium of guilt could publish 
such a production, and imagine it would injure the reputation 
of the President, or defend that of the writer. In my last 
numbered letter to you I mentioned an opinion that the 
party in France would perhaps return to the courting system, 
and I am almost tempted to believe that they advised this 
publication by way of atonement. For it seems to me im- 
possible that the production should have been given to the 
world, but by the agency of a person inveterate even to ran- 
cor against Mr. Randolph, and disposed to raise the character 
of the President higher if possible than Its former elevation. 

But the publication to the world of confidential opinions 
and sentiments entertained by the President with respect 
to the European parties and governments, will produce in a 
degree the effect for which it was calculated. They will 
produce some mischief. The sensation here upon seeing a 

uncertain whether the former is a presage of speedy pacification, or a mere agree- 
ment to take a breathing spell during the extremity of the season. As a neutral 
nation, deeply interested in the fate of the West Indies, we I think may consider 
the failure of the formidable apparatus of this country as a favorable event. While 
Britain weakens by war, and America strengthens by peace, every true American 
must feel a double satisfaction." To John Adams, February I, 1796. Ms. 
ji ^ A Vindication of Mr. Randolph's Resignation, Philadelphia, 1795. See Conway, 
Omitted Chapters of History disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph, 
l883. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 477 

proclamation to all the world that the President has been 
inimical to England, and the friend of the French cause, is 
very perceptible and very strong. It will not only corrob- 
orate and confirm that deep rooted malignity towards us 
which governs the cabinet, but it alienates and irritates the 
part of the nation who are well disposed towards us. 

They have however so much at present upon their hands 
that they will not quarrel with us. But no small use will be 
made of this pamphlet by the Ministers of this country. I 
have reason to suppose that it has given them great satis- 
faction, for their purposes concur so thoroughly with those 
of Mr. Randolph, that they seize with delight everything 
that contributes to promote them. It is one of those sin- 
gularities which seem reserved exclusively for the compli- 
cation of political intrigues, that the views of our French 
party and those of the Hawkesbury ^ conclave here, are ex- 
actly the same, and accordingly they are continually play- 
ing into each other's hands. They wish to perpetuate the 
variances between the United States and Britain, and ar- 
dently catch at everything that has a tendency to that end. 

Upon this subject I think it necessary to give you my 
opinion explicitly. The cabinet here have of late affected 
a great regard for the Government of the United States. In 
this particular too they have coincided with our most virulent 
anarchists, and have taken all possible pains to countenance 
and give credit to their assertions that the American ad- 
ministrations were upon terms of great harmony with that 
of Britain. The truth is that the American Government^ 
and those who are at the head of its administration, have not 
upon earth more rancorous enemies, than the springs which 
move the executive machine of this country. They know 
perfectly well that the strength, as well as the prosperity, 

} Charles Jenkinson (1727-1808), who was created Earl of Liverpool in 1796. 



478 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

of the United States, depend upon the efficiency of the Gov- 
ernment ; and above all things they dread the proof which 
any continued course of tranquillity would afford that it is 
a good practical government. In short every one of their 
feelings, individual and national, is hostile to us, and the 
policy of Vergennes and Montmorin to prevent our ac- 
quiring a consistency which would make us really formi- 
dable, is here envenomed by the recollection of former defeat 
and disappointment. 

Between the United States and Great Britain no cordial- 
ity can exist. I do not think it is on our part to be desired. 
But peace may, and I hope will, continue, notwithstanding 
all the conspiracies that have been formed against it in 
America and Europe.^ 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, March 20th, 1796. 



My Dear Sir : 



The people indeed everywhere ardently sigh for peace. 
Everywhere they perceive that they have been made the 
victims of their own passions and follies. They are every- 

1 "Mr. Adams, who was with me this morning [February 22, 1796], in his wrath 
and indignation at the conduct of the British government, seemed absolutely mad. 
He breathed nothing but war, and was content to run into it at the hazard of our 
finances and even of our Constitution. Such sentiments arise in him only for the 
moment and would not certainly influence his conduct; but such language, if held 
to those who should repeat it, must do mischief here. I tell him, when he asserts 
that the administration of this country means ill to us, that I think they only mean 
good to themselves, excepting always only two or three men who are personally 
vexed at our prosperity." Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, II. 157. Adams 
records in his Diary (Ms.) the same day: "Conversation with Mr. Morris. Do 
not at all concur in his opinions. Think him more decidedly English the more I 
see of him." 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 479 

where becoming more and more convinced that the struggle 
which they are still obliged to maintain, although its original 
object has completely failed on both sides, can only be de- 
structive to them, and they would gladly bury in oblivion 
the abstracted madness which created such a fanatical agi- 
tation of their brains about three years ago. But in all the 
governments of Europe new and old the people are considered 
as an instrument, not as the object, of political calculations. 
Their interests, their feelings, and their wishes are not the 
ultimate point of contemplation, but only a power over which 
the control of the superintendent is more or less efficacious 
according to the progress of events. The ruling powers 
therefore here and in France, finding the spirits of their 
combatants much exhausted, encourage them with hopes of 
peace, and at the same time are taking infinite pains to con- 
tinue the war, and to shift each upon the other the odium of 
that continuance. 

At the opening of the present session of Parliament the 
royal speech prepared the way for a sort of acknowledg- 
ment of the new French government, without which no pre- 
tence of negotiation could have been raised and supported.^ 
Soon after a message from the king formally declared that 
he would meet any disposition to negotiate on the part of 
France.- Upon a debate which recently took place Mr. 
Pitt declared that measures were taking which might lead 
to a negotiation, and even at this day reports of actually 
pending arrangements are industriously circulated and kept 
up by the ministerial influence. On the other hand a mes- 
sage from the Executive Directory of France to the Legis- 
lative body some time since expressly said that the enemies, 
or rather that enemies, of France had spoken of peace, and 

1 Speech from the Throne, October 29, 1795, in Annual Register, 1795, 138. 
* Message from the King, December 8, 1795. Ibid., 140. 



48o THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

the same message professed a very cordial desire to terminate 
the war.^ 

All this on both sides appears to be mere profession with- 
out sincerity. If the parties were really inclined to peace, 
their pretensions as to the conditions of it are too widely 
distant for them to meet without a further struggle. But 
the governments both of France and Britain dread the con- 
sequences of peace themselves. The armies of France are 
such formidable and unwieldy machines that the persons 
in power are very unwilling to take them from that employ- 
ment which removes their attention from home; while in 
this country the monarchy and aristocracy view in horror 
the prospect of a Republican establishment so near to them- 
selves. 

The last pamphlet of Burke, which I lately sent you, dis- 
covers this temper in its natural colors, and another, pro- 
fessedly written upon the subject and entitled "Thoughts 
upon the Prospect of a Regicide Peace," is announced for 
publication within a short period. Their object is probably 
to make a further experiment at fanaticizing the public 
mind, or at least to revive the flame which has long been 
drooping, and of late has been ready to expire. It is con- 
tending yet for ground which the ministers no longer dare 
openly to avow, but which their ostensible declarations 
rather disclaim. 

• • • • 

Your ever affectionate and grateful son. 

» In April the English government printed letters which had passed between 
William Wickham, English charge d'affaires in Switzerland, and Barthelemi, in 
which the latter rejected the suggestion of a congress for a general pacification. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 481 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

London, April 4, 1796. 
My Dear Sir : 

• •••••• 

I have some reason to suppose that the anti-neutral views 
of the French government extend even to Hamburg and 
Bremen, but their principal object will be the United States. 
They are undoubtedly dissatisfied with the treaty between 
us and Great Britain. This dissatisfaction does not how- 
ever proceed from themselves. It has been inspired by 
Americans at Paris, who foster and encourage it with all 
possible industry, and with ability profoundly systematic.^ 
From them (though I will not affirm hy them) the French 
government are led to believe, that this treaty will finally 
throw the United States a corps perdu into the arms of Brit- 
ain, that we shall soon be totally lost to France, and that 
unless the treaty can be overturned France must consider 
us henceforth as an infallible ally of Britain against her. 
With such a doctrine, coming from a source which they 
naturally consider as respectable, inculcated and corroborated 
by the personal talents of a man like Hichborn,^ and counter- 

1 "You will be surprised to hear that the only Americans whom I found here 
were a set of New Englandmen connected with Britain and who, upon British capi- 
tal, were trading to this country: that they are hostile to the French revolution is 
what you well know : but that they should be thriving upon the credit which the 
efforts of others in other quarters gain the American name here, you could not expect : 
that as such they should be in possession of the little confidence we had and give 
a tone to characters on our side of the Atlantic was still less to be expected. But 
such was the fact." Monroe to Madison, June 30, 1795. Writings 0} James Monroe, 
II. 313. "All the Americans recognized by Mr. Monroe were allowed to remain 
there [Paris], notwithstanding the late decree." John Quincy Adams to Joshua 
Johnson, June 2, 1796. Ms. 

^ Benjamin Hichborn, described by Monroe as "an American gentleman of char- 
acter here (from Massachusetts)," gave Monroe his first knowledge of the contents 
of the Jay treaty, having been made acquainted with them by John Trumbull. 
Writings of James Monroe, II. 243. 
2 I 



482 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

acted by no one American in France, it may well be sup- 
posed that they have taken an alarm against a treaty which, 
but for these incitements, they would have seen with per- 
fect indifference. Whether the late Minister Adet has 
been an obstacle to the furtherance of these views I know 
not, but probably it may be known to our government. 
The principal reason I have to think he did not suit them is, 
that they have never used the common artifices of party 
blazoning to give him weight. Be this as it may, he is re- 
called,^ and a man by the name of Vincent ^ is to go out in 
his stead. It is reported with that sort of mystery which 
intends to spread a secret, that he is to speak a very high 
language to our government, and it seems even to be in- 
sinuated that a clue is given him to demand a right which 
it is supposed will bring the British treaty to the test of 
execution. At the same time Mr. Thomas Paine, who lives 
as an inmate in the house of Mr. Monroe, is writing one of 
his efficacious pamphlets upon the subject, and this, his oc- 
cupation, is announced with much importance, to prepare 
public expectation for the appearance of the production.^ 
To all these manoeuvres there will undoubtedly be others 
correspondent in America. At the present stage of things 

^ On February 15, Monroe was informed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that 
the Directory considered the alliance between France and the United States to have 
ceased to exist from the moment the Jay treaty was ratified, and they would send 
a special envoy to make such a representation to the American government; that 
Adet had asked and obtained his recall. Monroe expressed astonishment and 
concern, protesting against the policy and even the safety of such a step ; and while 
he believed he had succeeded in toning down the anger of the government, and in 
leading to less stringent measures, the sense of injury remained. Adet remained in 
office until November 15, and in the country until the spring of 1797, for the pur- 
pose of influencing the election of 1796. As marking the displeasure of the French 
government no successor was nominated. 

^ Probably Pierre-Charles-Victor Vincent (1749-1817). 

' See Writings of James Monroe, II. 440. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 483 

I know not upon what the hopes of the party rest, but I think 
it must be upon the refusal of the House of Representatives 
to pass the laws necessary for the execution of the treaty. 
Randolph, who is no longer a body devoid of weight dragged 
along by the current of events ; Randolph, who has been at 
length compelled to decide on his party and, as it should seem, 
even without receiving the purchase money for his duty ; 
Randolph, of whom the party are now ashamed, but who 
hopes to retrieve in their eyes his changeable errors by his 
present devotion, has formally taken this ground in their 
behalf, and they will doubtless adhere to it as long as it 
shall be tenable. If the question should be brought for- 
ward during the present session of Congress, the operations 
which I have mentioned above will not have time to pro- 
duce their effect. They will therefore endeavor to pass 
this session without coming to the trial, and reserve all 
their engines to play upon the next. 

If In conformity to the treaty, the Western posts should be 
delivered up on the first of June, I think that all these plans, 
deeply concerted and ably conducted as they are, will 
fail. The treaty will be fully carried into effect, and with- 
out making us the allies of Britain or the enemies of France 
it will preserve our peace for the present with both. But 
will the posts be delivered ? I hope they will, though I 
have little confidence in the dispositions of this government, 
and as little in any exertions here to procure the delivery, if 
it should in any manner depend upon anything to be done 
or said on the part of the United States. 

The French government have perhaps been more readily 
induced to adopt fears and resentments against the treaty, 
from an Idea that at present its defeat must be followed by 
a war between us and Britain, a war upon their favorite 
system, which should leave them at liberty to make their 



484 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

peace without binding them to a common cause. They are 
now better prepared for this system of policy than they were 
the last year, for their provisions are In tolerable abundance, 
and they do not depend upon our neutrality for subsistence. 
They are therefore perhaps more strenuously inclined to 
provoke us against Britain, and to enforce the views of the 
party in America who hope for war, because they think it 
would prove the destruction of what Fauchet calls the 
treasurer' s plans. 

There may possibly be another object connected with 
that of stimulating a rupture with Britain, the success of 
which may be considered as Important towards that purpose. 
The Presidential elections are to take place In the course 
of the present year. The experiment of an attack upon the 
popularity of the President was made the last autumn and 
winter. It was Indeed altogether unsuccessful, but it pre- 
pared the way for the repetition of an assault, whenever the 
circumstances should be favorable to the purpose. The 
party are Inveterate against the President, because they now 
think him pledged In opposition to their views, and their 
object has therefore been to impress the French rulers with 
an opinion that he Is inimical to their cause. This design 
has not been entirely unsuccessful. Fauchet's certificate 
openly avows the Idea, and if the accounts I have heard from 
France are true, the style of American conduct and conver- 
sation at Paris Is by no means calculated to remove the im- 
pression. That the Impression exists among the mem- 
bers of the French government Mr. PInckney since his 
return here assures me to be the case ; nor is it difficult, 
since Randolph's pamphlet has been published, to trace 
the origin of the prejudice and some of the motives on which 
it Is founded. 

One of the great negotiators under Lewis the 14th, the 






1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 485 

Comte d'Avaux,' lays it down as a fundamental rule, that 
the only successful mode of treating with the Dutch Republic 
is by a constant and unremitting excitement of fear in the 
minds of the ruling men. This maxim is not laid down in 
Mably's - principles of negotiation, but its application ap- 
pears to have survived the French monarchy, and to be 
transferred beyond the Atlantic. It may be remembered 
how Genet in all his newspaper controversies perpetually 
threatened us with the vengeance of his Republic, and how 
faithfully his subalterns echoed his terrific strains. Since 
his time the French Ministers have been more guarded in 
their menaces, but the party have been very indulgent to 
wield the same weapon for them. Thus Mr. Randolph not 
only talks now of the ^^ crisis which he fears may disturb our 
harmony -with France'' but even in August, 1794, could 
speak of 'Hhe hazard of mortally offending the French.'' How 1 
Why, "^y the punctilious observance of neutrality." Thus 
many a letter from France has been written for the American 
public to raise an opinion of French resentment against the 
treaty, when nothing but the desire to stimulate that resent- 
ment existed. Thus we are in future to be told that France 
will defeat our treaty with Algiers, that she will shut us out 
from a participation of her commerce, perhaps even that she 
is at the point of declaring war against us. All these things 
are bottomed upon the principle of d'Avaux, and perhaps 
others, which may be supposed to contain powers of per- 
sonal operation upon the feelings of our first magistrate, will 
continue to be employed, however discouraging the ill success 
of the former attempts may have been. 

On one hand therefore he will be courted by the prospect 
of every support from the party, and on the other that of an 

1 Jean-Antoine de Mesmes, Comte d'Avaux (1640-1709). 

2 Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709-1785). 



486 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

opposition at least against the unanimity which marked the 
two preceding elections, will be suffered to be seen, under 
an expectation that it will have its influence in conciliating 
the sentiments of the person to the measures of the party. 
If this should not succeed, the attack of the last season will 
be renewed with redoubled impetuosity, and if they cannot 
hope to turn the balance of election they flatter themselves 
that at least they can induce retirement or resignation from 
the disgust of ill treatment. Such it seems according to 
Fauchet's letter was the policy upon which the persecution 
against Mr. Hamilton was conducted, and they will have 
double reasons for pursuing it in this instance. 

The removal of the President, however effected in the 
tactics of the combined French and party powers, is to be 
followed by a plan for introducing into the American Con- 
stitution a Directory instead of a President, and for taking 
from the supreme Executive the command of the armed 
force. This hopeful project has been intimated to you in a 
former letter. How far it has been shaped and organized 
I know not ; whether the course of events will prevent its 
advancement as a practical measure I shall not pretend to 
say ; but of the design to bring it forward at the first favor- 
able moment I have not the shadow of a doubt. 

The great error of the party in America has uniformly been 
to grasp at too much, to place too great a dependence upon 
the efficacy of their exertions, and to calculate upon a 
popular temper much more favorable to their views than 
the fact has ever proved. Notwithstanding all their ex- 
perience I think they are repeating the same mistake, and 
I consider this as one of the indications that they will even- 
tually fail in their present as they have heretofore done in 
their former objects. They now build their principal hopes 
upon the non-delivery of the forts, and there is no circum- 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 487 

stance that would so much confound and mortify them as a 
faithful execution of the treaty by the British In that article. 
This circumstance Is so obvious, that It might be urged with 
great force as an Inducement to decide this government If 
they were wavering on the point. The mode of Introducing 
the argument would Indeed be a delicate point, but I am sure 
it would have weight. Perhaps it has been or will be urged. 

They take for granted that there will be no delivery. This 
they presume will of course produce a refusal on our part to 
carry the treaty into execution, the result of which will be 
a decisive rupture between us and Britain, and a consequent 
triumph of French party, French principles, and French 
influence in the United States. 

It is, however, now so late in the season that the present 
year may be considered as secured, and by the close of this 
campaign it appears probable that even France and Britain 
will be prepared for serious negotiation. The increasing 
clamors for peace on both sides of the channel will perhaps 
compel the two governments to meet upon some composi- 
tion of terms, and in that case neither France, nor her humble 
adorers in America, will be so strenuous to provoke the 
quarrel, as they have been hitherto, and still are. 

Against the maritime supremacy of this country, the 
French government will indeed have a permanent motive to 
unite her own powers with others ; nor do I think It an ob- 
ject to be neglected by any of the powers to whom the liberty 
of commerce and navigation is interesting. The principles 
of the armed neutrality, which have been so long dispersed 
by the hurricane of the revolutionary contest, may again 
be collected as the storm subsides, and at this day all the 
governments which acceded to that system originally, are 
doubtless again convinced of Its importance, with the ex- 
ception only of Russia. It will indeed after the termination 



488 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

of the present war be more Important than ever, because the 
naval preponderance of Britain will then be greater than it 
has been at any former period. If, therefore, independent 
of the present contest, a plan should be proposed for con- 
certing the means to check the spirit of domination upon 
the sea, which Britain has so long avowed, and which be- 
comes formidable in proportion as her comparative strength 
augments, the government will without doubt give it all 
the consideration that may be proper. . . . 

COMMISSION TO PORTUGAL 

George Washington, President of the United States of America 
To John Quincy Adams — Greeting 

Reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Integrity, 
Prudence and Ability, I have nominated and by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the Senate, do appoint you the said John Quincy 
Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary for the United States of America 
at the Court of her most Faithful Majesty, authorizing you hereby 
to do and perform all such matters and Things as to the said Place 
of Office doth appertain, or as may be duly given you in charge 
hereafter, and the said office to hold and exercise during the pleas- 
ure of the President of the United States for the time being. In 
Testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States 
to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand at the City of 
Philadelphia, the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independ- 
ence of the United States of America the twentieth. 

Geo. Washington. 
By the President of the United States, 

(Seal) Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State} 

^ It is not thought necessary to print the instructions issued for his conduct in 
Portugal, for he never entered upon this mission. They concerned the trade in 
American flour and the commercial regulations applied in Portugal and her colonial 
possessions in America. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 489 

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE 
[Timothy Pickering] 

The Hague, June 4, 1796. 

• •••••• 

If the war by land be thus brought to a close, the whole 
force and attention of the French government will of course 
be turned towards the means of balancing the British naval 
force, and of assaulting the remaining antagonist in her only- 
vulnerable part. For this purpose measures will perhaps 
be pursued to raise other maritime enemies against Great 
Britain. In Europe, the Italian States, Spain, Denmark, 
Sweden and even Hamburg and Bremen may be stimulated, 
in various manners to shut the Baltic and the Mediterranean 
against the British commerce, and it will best be known to 
you, Sir, whether inducements of a similar nature will be 
presented to the United States. I have understood that it 
was not long since in the contemplation of the Directory, to 
send out an envoy extraordinary with a special mission to 
America, but that this intention has since been laid aside. 

Upon my arrival here, I found an administration differ- 
ently organized from that to which I was accredited, and 
even from that which I had left here the last autumn. The 
supreme authority of the republic is now held by a National 
Assembly, and the States General have been formally dis- 
solved. . . . 

The president of the National Assembly for the time being 
is, under the present arrangements, ex officio^ president of 
the Diplomatic Committee.^ I visited him of course Im- 
mediately after my return. He announced the circumstance 
to the Assembly, who thereupon directed their agent 

^ Vos van Steenwyk. 



490 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

[Slicher] to compliment me in their name upon my arrival, 
with the most cordial assurances of their regard and friend- 
ship for the United States, which he accordingly did yes- 
terday. . . .^ 



TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, June 6, 1796. 

My Dear Sir : 

At length I have been released from a situation equally 
remote from all public utility and all personal satisfaction. 
After a detention which I could not avoid, but which was at 
least unnecessary, of several months, I left London on the 
28th of last month, and arrived here on the 31st. The 
people there were in the midst of the Saturnalian election- 
eering holidays. The writs issued for the new Parliament 
are made returnable on the 12th of July. The changes will 
not be numerous, and the majorities of the Minister will be 
as great as they have been hitherto. Such at least was the 
general opinion, which was confirmed by the elections that 
had been made previous to my departure. 

i ^ "Within three weeks after the first meeting of the Assembly, the person who 
was mentioned to you as having united almost every vote as their president, and who 
has frequently been noticed in my former letters, Mr. Paulus, died. The loss of a 
man whose talents and activity had been so peculiarly conspicuous from the com- 
mencement of the recent revolution, has been, and will continue to be felt severely 
by the patriots of the nation. In the accomplishment of the alliance with France, 
and of a national convocation to form a constitution for the republic, he had been 
essentially instrumental, and his exertions had succeeded at least far beyond the 
common expectation in reanimating the maritime power of the country. The ob- 
jects to which he directed the application of his efforts, were those upon which the 
national system of policy depends, and his abilities were the more serviceable as 
they are much more rarely met with than those which are engrossed by a contracted 
spirit of detail." To Secretary of State, June ii, 1796. Ms. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 491 

The account of the resolution of the House of Represent- 
atives of the United States relative to the British treaty, 
passed on the 17th of April, had arrived a few days before 
I came away. It was brought by the Arab, a sloop of war 
dispatched from New York expressly for the purpose, and 
which had a passage of only twenty-three days. The reso- 
lution was considered as the natural precursor of a final de- 
cision not to pass the laws necessary to carry the treaty into 
effect on the part of the United States, and the sensation 
which the intelligence produced was even greater than I 
should have expected. I confess it made me doubly desir- 
ous to quit a country, where the malevolence that is so com- 
mon against America was exulting in the triumph with 
which it pointed to the event, as a proof of our executive 
imbecility, or of our legislative perfidy. It was difficult to 
refute both the alternatives, and I retired with pleasure 
from the humiliating task of palliating what I felt myself 
altogether incapable to justify. 

To all the Americans in England that I met with after the 
news of this resolution, it was quite unexpected, as their 
accounts from home had uniformly led them to the hope or 
fear of a different event. But I cannot say the case was 
thus with me, and in my letter of April 4, which I hope has 
reached you before this, you will find at full length the 
opinion that I then held upon the subject. As a party ma- 
noeuvre the proceedings to which the House have given their 
sanction was well conducted, and indeed it would be blind- 
ness not to perceive that the operations of that party are 
conducted with a skill, and perseverance, and harmony, and 
consistency, which the friends of the government seldom 
discover. That all the weight of French influence was ex- 
erted on that occasion is unquestionable. The delivery of 
the forts was a thing too much dreaded by them, to be suf- 



492 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

fered without a struggle. That event would have been the 
death blow to all their hopes of engaging the United States 
in the war, and they well knew it was inevitable, if the treaty 
did not first meet with non-compliance on our part. Under 
the present circumstances the forts will assuredly not be 
delivered, and the party who have succeeded in preventing 
it, will make them again the watchword of their war-whoop. 
You may depend upon it as a certain fact, that the French 
policy of the present day is determined upon involving us 
yet in the war. From the complexion of the present House 
of Representatives I have strong apprehensions that they 
will succeed ; if they do, we shall not be found despicable 
enemies. But what will become of our national government ? 
What will become of our federal union ? I am unwilling 
to look the prospect in the face. 

If the late proceedings of the House were to be considered 
merely as the flashes of anger and resentment against the 
British government, whatever my opinion of their wisdom 
might be, I should concur with my whole soul in the motives, 
and should have comparatively but trifling apprehensions 
of the consequences. But the wound is evidently deeper, 
the symptoms indicate an infallible struggle between the 
popular and executive branches of our government. In 
such a struggle what will become of the executive ? Espe- 
cially if it should get encumbered with such a distressing 
war as they are endeavoring to excite. In my opinion it 
must inevitably fall. 

The system of French government in America is not 
changed as far as I can discover. But an alteration of 
measures has certainly taken place. The bullying embassy 
which I mentioned in my N. 19 as being in contemplation 
is now said to be laid aside, and even Mr. Paine's threatened 
pamphlet has not yet appeared. He has only published a 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 493 

piece upon the English finances,^ which I sent you from Lon- 
don, and which In his own opinion amply revenges all the 
injuries and Insults which the United States and France 
have received from Great Britain for the last four years. 
What the present views of the American representation in 
France are I am unable to say, but the final object of the 
French system is still to Involve us in war and to new model 
our executive. . . . 

TO CHARLES ADAMS 

The Hague, June 9, 1796. 

That a dissolution of the union would be the consequence 
of a war with Great Britain, I think very probable; but the 
dissolution of the union is perhaps rather a subject of hope 
than of fear, to those who are hurrying the nation to its 
disgrace and calamity. If there be a Frenchman who gov- 
erns and conducts the party that now commands a majority, 
you may rest assured that neither he, nor those from whom 
he receives his impulse, have dispositions at all favorable to 
the American union. 

My sentiments, I confess, are widely different. All my 
hopes of national felicity and glory have Invariably been 
founded upon the continuance of the union. I have cher- 
ished these hopes with so much fondness, they have so long 
been incorporated into my ideas of public concern, that I 
cannot abandon them without a pang, as keen as that of a 
dissolving soul and body. Much as I must disapprove of the 
general tenor of southern politics I would rather even yield 
to their unreasonable pretensions and suffer much for their 

1 Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance. It ran through twelve edi- 
tions in England in 1796, was issued in New York and Philadelphia, and in Paris 
(translated by F. Lanthenas) in the same year. 



494 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

wrongs, than break the chain that binds us together.^ For 
there is no one article of my political creed more clearly 
demonstrated to my mind than this, that we shall proceed 
with gigantic strides to honor and consideration, and na- 
tional greatness, if the union is [preserved ; but that if it is 
once broken, we shall soon divide into a parcel of petty 
tribes at perpetual war with one another, swayed by rival 
European powers, whose policy will agree perfectly in the 
system of keeping us at variance with one another, and who 
will at the same time govern and despise the party they may 
respectively protect. 



FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE 

Department of State, June 11, 1796. 
Sir : 

I have the pleasure to inform you, that the President with the 
advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, has ap- 
pointed you their Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal ; Col. 
Humphreys having at the same time been appointed Minister 
Plenipotentiary to Spain.- But the negotiations with the Bar- 
bary Powers, which were committed to Colo. Humphreys, un- 
fortunately continue incomplete : there is indeed not a little danger 
that the peace concluded with Algiers may, by some untoward 
events, be defeated. This circumstance, together with the fact 
that no minister is yet appointed to succeed you in Holland, where 
for several reasons, it seemed important we should have one, deter- 
mined the President to postpone the transfer of your services from 
the Hague to Lisbon. You will therefore continue to exercise your 

^ Among the possible plans for his own future, he considered a settlement in one 
of the Southern States. 

^ David Humphreys was Minister Resident at Lisbon from February 21, 1791, 
to November 30, 1794. On May 20, 1796, he had been appointed Minister Pleni- 
potentiary to Spain, and held that appointment until November, 1801. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 495 

functions as Minister Resident at the Hague, until a change of 
circumstances shall render it expedient for you to proceed to 
I Lisbon. This expected change may probably admit of your re- 
moval early in the autumn, of which however you will be duly 
advised. In the mean time you will consider the new appoint- 
ment, what it is in reality, a decided proof of the President's high 
opinion of your talents, integrity and worth. 

I am very respectfully, etc. 

Timothy Pickering.^ 

* The date of Adams' appointment was May 30, 1796. This letter reached him 
August 6, and he replied : " As a proof of the President's approbation of my conduct 
since I have been in the public service of the United States, and the good opinion he 
entertains of my intentions, it has deeply affected my sensibility." To the Secretary 
of State, August 7, 1796. The commission, letter of credence, and instructions were 
not sent until February 17, 1797. 

Abigail Adams wrote, August 10, 1796, that this appointment "was the last 
nomination which the President made before the rising of Congress, and took place 
after your father came home [to Quincy], without its ever being hinted to him. The 
appointment was agreed to, as Mr. Otis informs me, unanimously by the Senate." 
Ms. 

"The appointment to the mission of Portugal I find from your letter was as I 
had before concluded unknown to my father. I have already written you upon the 
subject, and I hope, my ever dear and honored mother, that you are fully convinced 
from my letters which you have before this received, that upon the contingency of 
my father's being placed in the first magistracy, / shall never give him any trouble 
by solicitation for office of any kind. Your late letters have repeated so many times 
that I shall in that case have nothing to expect that I am afraid you have imagined 
it possible that I might form expectations from such an event. I had hoped that 
my mother knew me better; that she did me the justice to believe that I have not been 
so totally regardless or forgetful of the principles which my education has instilled, 
nor so totally destitute of a personal sense of delicacy as to be susceptible of a wish 
tending in that direction. I have indeed long known that my father is far more 
ambitious for my advancement, far more solicitous for the extension of my fame, 
than I ever have been, or ever shall be myself; but I have hitherto had the satis- 
faction to observe that the notice with which my country and its government have 
honored me, and the confidences which they have been pleased repeatedly to repose 
in me, have been without the smallest agency of my father, other than the recom- 
mendation which his services carried with them." To Abigail Adams, November 
14, 1796. Ms. 



496 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

TO MADAME DE LA FAYETTE 

La Haye, Juin 15, 1796. 

Madame : 

La lettre que vous m'avez fait I'honneur de m'ecrire, me 
fut remise par Monsieur de Lally a Londres, dans un moment 
ou,Mr. PInckneyetant deja de retour a sa residence, jen'avals 
aucune relation quelconque avec le MInlstre Britannlque. 

II m'eut ete certalnement tres precleux de pouvoir etre de 
quelque utUIte a vous et a M. de la Fayette. Les bontes 
personnelles et les services signales qu'U a rendu a ma patrie, 
lul ont donne les plus grands droits a ma reconnaissance et a 
mon attachment. Ces sentiments, qui me sont communs 
avec tous les Americalns, sont encore fortifies par ceux de 
I'anclenne amitle pour lui dont tout ma famlUe s'honore. 
Ce fut done avec le regret le plus sensible que je me trouval, 
lorsque je regus votre lettre, dans I'lmposslblllte de faire la 
demarche qu'elle m'Indlqualt. Je ne pus seulement que 
rempllr le devoir de la recommander a Mr. PInckney, qui par- 
tage avec senslblllte le desir ardent de tous les citoyens des 
Etats Unis, de toutes les ames genereuses de voir rendre a 
la llberte celul qui a si glorleusement servl sa cause. 

Quolqu'en cette occasion je n'al eu que les sentiments 
penlbles d'une volonte sincere a vous servir, sans en posseder 
les moyens, je vous prie d'etre assuree, que si aux voeux 
que je ne cesse de faIre pour sa liberation et la votre, je pour- 
ral jamais ajouter le pouvoir d'y contrlbuer, je regarderai 
le moment auquel je salslral cet avantage comme un des 
plus heureux de ma vie. 

J'al I'honneur d'etre, avec tous les sentiments de respect 
et d'admlration que vous commandez a tant de titres 
Madam, votre tres humble et tres obeissant servlteur. 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 497 

TO JOHN ADAMS 

The Hague, June 24, 1796. 
My Dear Sir : 

• •••••• 

If the accounts received here are well founded, the House 
of Representatives have at last passed the laws necessary 
to execute on our part the treaty with Britain, though by a 
very small majority.^ There will therefore now be left no 
pretext for refusing, or delaying any longer, the delivery 
of the forts, and I believe that it will be, or rather that it 
has been done. If there should be any further cavilling and 
quibbling on this subject, I think our government may con- 
clude that all hope or expectation of amicable adjustment is 
vain, and hope they will pursue such a line of conduct as 
will either curb an insolence altogether insupportable, or 
bring to the test the importance of our national friendship. 

The American citizens partial to the French interest that 
I meet occasionally, and the French political characters with 
whom I have an opportunity to converse, all foretell with a 
confidence which would alarm if its motive were not dis- 

1 The vote taken on April 30 was fifty-one ayes and forty-eight nays. " The 
treaty to be executed, and a majority of three members. It is I own rather better 
than I expected, and gives me great pleasure, because it will put John [Bull] upon 
his good behavior, and either keep us at bare peace with him, or if we must quarrel, 
will keep the right of the cause on our side. I trust he will now give us the forts, spite 
of wishes and vaticinations of you know who [J. Q. A.]. If he docs not, I shall be 
ready to give him up, and fight him at once." To Joseph Hall, June 17, 1796. Ms. 

"I was happy to find that after all there was a majority in that house (a feeble 
one indeed), who could make a distinction between the right to ratify ot reject, and 
the power to violate a solemn national engagement, and who did not think proper to 
construe the latter, which they certainly possessed, into the former, which the Con- 
stitution has explicitly placed in other hands. I own I did not expect to find the 
name of Mr. Madison among the negatives of that vote." To Abigail Adams, 
July 26, 1796. Ms. 
2 K 



498 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

cernible, and which even as It is deserves attention, that the 
forts will not be delivered up according to the treaty, and 
some of them undertake particularly to specify the fort of 
Niagara, which they say will certainly be withheld. This 
confident foresight, however, is one of the party manoeuvres. 
They hoped that the House of Representatives would make 
such a stand against the treaty as at least to leave its efficacy 
in suspense until after the period designated for the surrender 
of the posts. They had no doubt but that in that case the 
British government would at least delay the delivery while 
a question on our side remained, and they were desirous to 
secure the benefit of a future pretension that the delay on 
the part of the British proceeded, not from the obstacles 
raised by us, but from a deliberate and perfidious intention 
to make a sport of the most solemn obligations. This policy 
has so long been evident to me, that I thought the party in 
our national representative body would endeavor only to 
delay the resolve for passing the necessary laws, and would 
not venture out point-blank against their enactment at all. 

As to the good faith of the British government I have just 
the same opinion of it that I have of their friendly disposition 
towards the United States, or of their commercial generos- 
ity. They are all upon a level, and Heaven forefend that 
our only dependence for their performance of stipulations 
should ever rest upon either. But I cannot see what pre- 
text they can now raise to furnish a further delay, and al- 
though the influential party among them would rejoice at 
an opportunity to go to war with us, they dare not do it 
without some plausible reason to stimulate the animosity 
of their own people. 

I feel therefore almost as confident that the posts will be 
delivered up, as my French friends are, or appear to be, that 
they will not. I have been obscurely sounded both directly 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 499 

and indirectly by the French Minister here, to discover my 
opinion upon the article since my return from England, 
but have not thought it consistent with my duty to gratify 
his curiosity. 

But if they should not, upon whatever pretence the denial 
may be grounded it will certainly become an important ob- 
ject with our government to take measures of preparation 
for a state of hostility, which will in that case, I think, be 
unavoidable, and which will scarce be worth attempting any 
longer to avoid. 

Our only vulnerable part will be our commerce; but that 
will for a certain period of time be very much exposed, and, 
while the contest continues, must expect to be totally sus- 
pended in our own vessels at least. This last part of the 
evil will admit of no preventive remedy ; it must follow from 
the incontestable superior naval power of Britain, and is 
proved sufficiently by the present experience of this Republic, 
as well as France, neither of which have, I think, an ounce 
of merchandise afloat under their own flags for any trade 
but that of coasting, which is likewise very insecure. 

Whether the government will have the means of providing 
a shelter for any part of the navigation that will be in danger 
of immediate capture, I am not able to conjecture. But 
there are some observations which occur so frequently to 
my mind, that I cannot avoid mentioning them. If they 
can be of no service, at least they will do no harm. 

It has been, you know, the policy of Great Britain for 
more than a hundred years past, whenever she was deter- 
mined to go to war with any other nation, to begin hostilities 
without giving any previous notice, to continue her depre- 
dations as long as the patience of her adverse party would 
bear a continuance of pacific negotiation, and to amuse 
with one expedient and another, until the defenceless navi- 



500 ■ THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

gation of the complaining power has been ruined, at least 
as much as depended upon her. You know, likewise, that 
France has by dear experience been so clearly convinced 
that this is the permanent British system, that in the last 
war and the present she has taken special care to be before 
hand in the attack. From the general disposition of the 
British government and nation towards the United States, 
and more especially from their conduct towards us during 
the present war, we may be assured that she will invariably 
follow the same principles in her differences with us. The 
orders of Council of the 6th of November, 1793, are alone a 
sufficient proof of their dispositions, and indeed, when the 
nature of the British power is considered, the conclusion is 
inevitable that the course can not possibly be otherwise. 

Let us take it, therefore, for granted that such will be the 
maxims of the cabinet, and let us suppose that the intention 
to make an application of them to America should exist. 
It is apparent that the more the American commerce is 
extended, the more it will inevitably suffer from this species 
of preliminary plunder. These facts being so clear make the 
very magnitude of the commerce into which our neutrality 
has led our countrymen a subject of alarm. It appears evi- 
dent to me that at this moment our people are overtrading, 
that a larger portion of the capital of the country is em- 
ployed in commerce and navigation than it can support, 
and that we shall suffer for it, either during the war by 
getting involved in it, or at the peace by the exclusions which 
will naturally follow from the regulations of the powers now 
belligerent. 

I am apprehensive that this overtrading will continue, 
and have a tendency to increase still further, the longer the 
war shall last without our participating in it. Should this 
be the case we shall be continually more exposed to injury 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 501 

the further we advance, and continually offer to the rapacity 
of the British navy a fairer object of plunder. 

We have no naval power of our own, and from the general 
temper of our people I suspect that they will never submit 
to the expense, without which It can neither be created nor 
maintained, until a bitter experience shall teach them that 
in the present state of the world, and with such a nation as 
Britain existing, the expense of a respectable naval power 
is the price which must be paid for a secure commerce by 
every other. 

I know not whether our government is in possession of 
any means that can restrain the boundless avidity of our 
commercial speculators, who seem in many instances to 
think that a power which cannot exact obedience is, how- 
ever, competent to give protection. They will, therefore, 
venture upon the wildest commercial schemes, and when 
they have brought them Into trouble, curse the government 
for not helping them out. It is a fact, which the popular 
passions would refuse to hear, but which I firmly believe, 
that the stipulations In the British treaty which have aban- 
doned for the present the power of protecting enemies' 
property In neutral vessels, will have an operation very 
favorable to the United States by checking that excessive 
extraordinary trade, which must be stopped entirely upon 
the return of peace. The present state of our commerce 
may be compared to a boiling fluid which, unless properly 
guarded, swells and overflows ; but upon subsiding leaves 
the vessel emptied In part of its contents. 

I sometimes think that you will judge from the complex- 
Ion of my letters, that my Imagination is apt to raise phan- 
toms and then tremble before them ; that my opinions have 
too strong a tincture of timidity for the boldness necessary 
to a political character. And I freely confess that the neu- 



502 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

trality of the United States throughout the present war, 
until its final termination, is in my mind an object of such 
inestimable value, and involves so deeply the welfare not of 
the present age only but of all posterity, that I may perhaps 
be inclined to see through a magnifying medium everything 
that can have a tendency to defeat it. It is certain that 
France, and this country too, are ardently desirous to engage 
in the war. The principal inducements which have hereto- 
fore contributed to make France acquiesce in our neutrality 
have recently been removed. They were the debt which 
we owed them, and their dependence upon us for provisions. 
Their present plenty and the prospect of an abundant har- 
vest make them confident of producing sufficient for their 
own subsistence, and that part of the debt that remained 
undischarged has been sold to a private company. On the 
other hand France has a fair hope of making an advantageous 
and honorable peace with Austria, her only remaining for- 
midable continental enemy, and she expects to be soon left 
to contend with Britain alone, whose relative situation is so 
advantageous that there is no prospect of her consenting 
to a peace, such as the French government think themselves 
obliged to require. For it is to be remarked that the situa- 
tion of Britain relative to France is similar to that of France 
relative to the continental powers. The Dutch Colonies 
both of East and West Indies are falling one after another 
into the hands of the British. And unless France can pro- 
cure some other resource besides her maritime exertions her 
own possessions will meet the same fate. That resource I 
have more than once mentioned to you in my former letters. 
It is to distress the British commerce by uniting all the mari- 
time powers in war against her ; or rather by provoking 
them all to quarrel with her. This system was pursued with 
Sweden and was on the point of succeeding, when the Em- 



17961 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 503 

press of Russia Interfered in her usual style by prescribing 
the most humiliating conditions, to which after some blus- 
tering Sweden was compelled to submit. The ambassador, 
your old acquaintance, de Stael, is therefore removed from 
Paris, and the French policy may be considered as en- 
tirely defeated at present In Sweden. The same terror 
of Russia controls the Danish cabinet, which appears Inflex- 
ibly determined upon the preservation of neutrality, though 
they are no less indignant than ourselves at the depredations 
and Insolence of the British. It was but the other day that 
they cut out a Dutch or French vessel from the port of 
Bergen. The French government complained in an high 
tone, but the final answer they received was that they had 
been, and should be protected as far as the Danish govern- 
ment was able, but if they expected their vessels to be safe, 
they must direct them to anchor only In the ports that are 
well fortified and of strength beyond an insult. Hamburg 
has also resisted the French operations, which would have 
involved their city with the Emperor. But as France had a 
vast number of their vessels in her ports, she has dealt not 
so ceremoniously with them, but embargoed them all, and 
now Insists upon a large sum as a price of accommodation. In 
Spain the French views have a better prospect of success. 
The differences between that government and the British 
increase, and the harmony of the former with the French 
Republic is likewise augmenting. The success of the Italian 
campaign has laid the princes of that country at the feet 
of the Directory, who prescribe to them all their own terms 
of peace. It is said, and with the greatest appearance of 
probability, that they will require of the King of Sardinia,^ 
the Duke of Modena,^ the Pope,^ and the King of Naples,^ 

1 Victor Amadeus III. = Hercules III. ' Pius VI. 

* Ferdinand IV, who married Maria Carolina, daughter of Maria Theresa. 



504 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

as Indispensable terms, such stipulations as will exclude the 
British from all their dominions. Tuscany Is Indeed a 
neutral power, but will be so much at the mercy of the 
French, that the government will no doubt be very much 
under their influence. As to their respect for neutral rights, 
they may be Inferred from what the Commander-in-chief 
Buonaparte writes recently to the Directory. He has taken 
possession of Verona In the Venetian territory, and of course 
a neutral city. But it seems the French pretender not long 
since had resided there, and Buonaparte says, that If he had 
not been gone before his arrival, he would have set fire to 
the city for having the Insolence to think Itself the capital 
of the French Empire. 

It Is not Improbable, therefore, that they will be able to 
shut the whole Italian market against the British navigation, 
and if so It will become very diflicult for the British to retain 
Corsica, or to maintain their commerce In the Black Sea. 
The French therefore have a fair prospect of excluding their 
enemy from the benefit of trade with all Europe, excepting 
only the Baltic, and it is the power of Russia which alone 
will hinder them from obtaining the same advantage there. 
If in addition to this they can equally deprive her of all the 
immense advantages of the American market, they think, 
and with great appearance of reason, that the British com- 
merce must decline, so as to occasion a deficiency of revenue, 
a loss of credit, perhaps a deficiency of natural payments, 
and such a general distress and clamor for peace, as will 
bring the haughtiness of Britain down to the modesty even 
of a pacification at the expense of many sacrifices ; or per- 
haps they flatter themselves with the still more pleasing 
hope of seeing their Inveterate and deadly rival a completely 
ruined nation. 

It Is not to be doubted, therefore, but that France will 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 505 

use all the influence in her power to produce a war between 
the United States and Britain. What her influence is at 
all times, and what her talents at exerting it, are perfectly 
well known to you. But there is one cause operating at 
present which gives unusual weight to her influence, and of 
which few people among us I believe are aware. The public 
opinion in America concerning European affairs is in a con- 
siderable degree formed from the representations of the 
Americans arriving occasionally from Europe, or writing 
from some part of it to their friends. But it so happens 
that nine-tenths of the Americans both in France and Eng- 
land, have powerful motives both of feeling and of interest 
to bias their judgments, to make them favorable to the 
French cause and adverse to the British. The motives of 
feeling arise not only from the popularity which the ideas of 
a struggle for liberty have given to the French, but from the 
difference of treatment that our countrymen experience in 
the two countries. In the general treatment of strangers 
the French manners are captivating, the English are re- 
pulsive. In the particular sentiments towards Americans 
which give the tone to the behavior of individuals, those of 
France are amicable and attractive, those of England always 
cold and distant, generally insolent and overbearing, and not 
unfrequently contemptuous and malignant. It is impossible 
for any American having the common feelings of a man, to 
be conversant with the two nations, without contracting 
an instinctive propensity of good will towards the former, 
and of malevolence or at least of resentment towards the 
latter. The motives of interest have the same tendency. 
Great numbers of the Americans in France have debts due 
to them from the French government. Almost all have 
speculated, either in the purchase of confiscated estates, or 
of assignats or in some other manner upon revolutionary 



5o6 THE WRITINGS OF [1796 

ground. It Is not necessary to reason at any great length, in 
order to show that the private interest of all such persons is 
concerned in the success of France through the war, and in her 
attainment of an advantageous peace. On the other hand 
the Americans in England are almost universally indebted 
more or less to the British merchants, and they generally 
believe that a war between the United States and Britain 
would serve as a sponge for their debts, or at least relieve 
them from payment as long as it should last, and leave them 
in the meantime possessed of the capital upon which the 
debts arose. There are some Americans, and they are among 
the number of those whose abilities give their statements 
and representations the greatest weight, who have all those 
motives operating upon them at once, who are at the same 
time debtors to British merchants, creditors to the French 
government, and speculators in all the French revolutionary 
funds, all to an immense amount. These persons as credi- 
tors of the French government, if not in any other capacity, 
have access to many members of the legislative and execu- 
tive bodies. With all their incentives of feeling and of 
interest they are not only stimulated to wish well to France, 
but may be sensible that they cannot ingratiate themselves 
better than by contributing to the furtherance of the French 
views ; and the conclusion of the whole matter is, that the 
whole weight and influence of such people in America are 
far from being friendly to the peace of the United States. 
It is easy to conceive how much energy this kind of com- 
bination may have acquired, by a regular intercourse and 
concerted operations with the principal partizans for war 
in the United States, as the force of such concert would be 
but the more efficacious for being secret. 

There is nothing, therefore, but a peace between France 
and Britain that can extricate us from the danger of being 



1796] JOHN QUINCY ADAAIS 507 

sooner or later Involved In the quarrel. But at the same 
time, it is evident that the state of affairs at present makes 
it more than ever the interest of the British government to 
avoid a rupture with us. The longer the war continues, the 
more that interest will increase, from the double cause of 
their constant weakening and our continually growing 
strength. These circumstances will not be overlooked I 
trust by the American government, nor by whatever negotia- 
tion shall finish the business relative to the late treaty. 
That subject will be of extreme delicacy ; for on the one hand 
it will offer abundant occasions to try seriously the degree 
of pliability of which the British cabinet is capable, and on 
the other there will be some danger of straining that string 
too far. By the full effect that is now given to the treaty 
on our part, the advantage of justice appears to be altogether 
on our side, and if we must eventually try the temper of our 
swords, that circumstance will at least afford a great con- 
solation. 

From some of the facts upon which these observations 
are founded there may be drawn an inference, that in all 
times of maritime war the closest possible attention is to be 
paid by the American minister in England to the proceed- 
ings of the Privy Council. It is upon orders proceeding 
from them that all the captures by the king's ships and 
privateers are founded, and when the object of the govern- 
ment is to negotiate and plunder at the same time, as long as 
the patience of those whom they injure may last, these orders 
are kept as secret as possible. It should, therefore, I think 
be a standing instruction to our minister at that Court when- 
ever they are at war, to use all the endeavors in his power to 
obtain information of the secret orders of Council to the 
commanders of armed vessels. I know not how far it could 
at any time be effected, but I am fully persuaded that the 



So8 THE WRITINGS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS [1796] 

day will come when such Information, If procured at the 
time when the orders are resolved on, will prove of the ut- 
most utility to the protection of our commercial property. 

I remain &c.^ 



^ "It is undoubtedly true that the violence and rapacity of a superior naval 
strength drove this Republic very reluctantly to a war towards the close of our 
contest with Britain. It is equally true that this Republic alone of all the comba- 
tants at that time against Great Britain was compelled after suffering immense 
losses to acquiesce in a peace without indemnity, without satisfaction, and at the 
expense of great commercial and some territorial sacrifices. 

"The present war on the part of Great Britain was at one time justified by some 
members of the government as undertaken in defence of the commercial rights of the 
United Provinces. The progress of this defence has been to bring the Allies into 
a war against each other, and, whether defending or assaulting, the sole purpose that 
is invariably and inflexibly pursued is that of annihilating the Dutch commercial 
and maritime power. 

"This system of policy is not applied to the Dutch alone, but to every nation 
that has a vessel floating upon the ocean. It is pursued with so much perseverance 
and abihty as well as with such extraordinary exertions of strength, that it becomes 
a consideration of no inconsiderable magnitude to the government of every commer- 
cial people to counteract a project so pernicious to their welfare. 

"The object is undoubtedly of the utmost importance to the United States, 
because they, from their situation, their prospects and their character, may depend 
upon having the whole weight of the policy directed against them; and because 
according to the present state of things, they alone of all the nations upon earth may 
rationally hope to possess the means of restoring the British views to a greater 
conformity with the equitable principles of natural right. 

"As far as the experience of this country can serve as a guide, it does not appear 
that the proper mode of resistance against the exclusive ambition of Britain is by 
making war without an adequate naval force to meet them upon the sea." To the 
Secretary of State, June i6, 1796. Ms. 

"I hope it will not be thought impertinent if I take this occasion to observe 
that since the United States have acquired the consideration in Europe that the 
prosperous administration of the national government has given them, the Euro- 
pean cabinets have naturally increased their attention to its proceedings. In Eng- 
land I think it may be taken as a general fact, that the Ministry are informed of 
the proceedings of Congress and of the American news, about three weeks earlier 
than the American Minister. Even in this country their intelligence is often more 
recent than mine." To the Secretary of State, June 22, 1796. Ms. 



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dicted the fast-approaching time when labor laws will be made by labor interest 
for the advantage of labor. These volumes are the record of the most splendid 
failure in the political history of England." — Philadelphia Press. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



Abraham Lincoln : The Boy and the Man 

By JAMES MORGAN 

With Many Interesting Portraits and Other Illustrations 

many of them secured for the book from 

Private Collections 

Cloth, $1.50 

You may already know the great events of Lincoln's life, but you will still 
find this simple, clear, straightforward story of the early hard work, the 
slow study for the practice of law, the single-minded stand " for the Un- 
ion," and the brave, quiet facing of every difficulty, the most fascmating 
record of any human life which you have known. 

The Chicago Tribune says of it editorially : " It tells the life story well. 
It is interesting. It is well written. It gives the significant facts one 
wants to know." 

The Seven Ages of Washington 

By OWEN WISTER 

Attractively bound, illustrated in photogravure, $2.00 net 

The New York Tribune says of it: "'The Seven Ages of Washington' 
. . . gives a remarkable interpretation of its subject. ... It is plain 
that the author has been moved to the depths of him by his hero's worth, 
findmg in the traditionally 'cold' figure of Washington a type to touch 
the emotions as vividly as Napoleon touches them in even his most dra- 
matic moments. He passes on his impression in a few chapters which 
gather up everyday traits as they come out in letters and other records. 
The salient events in Washington's career, military and political, are in- 
dicated rather than dwelt upon. The object of interest is always his 
character ; the things placed in the foreground are the episodes, great or 
small, which show us that character in action or point to the sources of 
its development. . . The background, like the portrait, is handled 
with perfect discretion. The reader who is searching for an authorita- 
tive biography of Washington, brief, and made humanly interesting from 
the first page to the last, will find it here " 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



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